重塑司法：确保在尼泊尔新宪法中的贱民权利 - Recasting Justice: Securing Dalit Rights in Nepal's New Constitution

介绍

在建立尼泊尔新宪法过程中，国民代表大会终于有机会塑造国家和平、推进尼泊尔政治、经济和社会发展、表明其对所有个人固有尊严的承诺。为了达到这些至高无上的目标，尼泊尔所有贱民人群的权利----特别是女性和"更低"贱民阶层----必须得以实现。

这份联合声明援引了尼泊尔国际人权义务，以确定如何最好地实现贱民权利。通过分析临时宪法预测未来宪法内容，声明还具体地指出如何促进这些宪法条款的有效性。尼泊尔和其他受种姓制度影响的国家如印度的经验显示，在纸上保障权利是不够的；只有强有力的实施和执行才能弥合宪法愿景和社会现实之间的差距。

事实和法律起点

在尼泊尔，无处不在的种姓制度有力地控制着整个社会。究其根本，种姓制度不过是一套歧视系统，一部分人仅仅因为他们生于某个特定的社会群体从而永远被打上劣等人的烙印。这一特点决定了一个贱民生活中每一个重要的方面，包括公民身份、获取土地、健康和教育。"不可接触"就是这一歧视系统最粗暴的表现------彻底的否定和隔离。这个系统认为贱民是被玷污的人权，因为禁止他们接触非贱民人群和他们的财产。

贱民同时受到政府和私人的极端剥削，包括：社区隔离、禁止进入公共场所、拒绝给予食物、水和土地、胁迫做那些对"更高种姓"来说太"精神不纯洁"的工作。贱民们对这一社会秩序的反抗却受到暴力惩罚和社会排斥，国家也常常未能预防或惩罚这些行为。

而且，贱民中的妇女和女童同时经受着种姓与性别歧视，承受剥削和暴力。另外，南方地区的麦德锡（Madhesi）贱民和某些贱民阶层如盖因（GAINE）和巴迪（BADI）更加受到边缘化和排斥，因此在享受人权上面临更多的障碍。

尼泊尔的国际人权义务

尼泊尔对种姓歧视的默许和明确支持违法了国际法。尼泊尔是下列国际人权条约的缔约国：《消除一切形式种族歧视条约》、《消除一切形式的对妇女歧视公约》、《公民权利与政治权利国际公约》、《经济、社会和文化权利国际公约》、《禁止酷刑和其他残忍、不人道或有辱人格的待遇或处罚公约》、以及《儿童权利公约》 。

这些条约建立有约束力的义务，必须真诚地尊重、保护和履行权利。这些义务的核心是不歧视（无论是意图还是效果）和平等、形式上（法律）还是实务上（现实）。

监督条约执行情况的相关机构审查了尼泊尔的人权纪录。这些机构发现，尼泊尔未能履行许多国际法律义务。尽管事实是，即使尼泊尔的政治机制向民主制过渡，这些义务仍然适用于尼泊尔。

在新宪法中确保贱民权利

此联合声明假定尼泊尔临时宪法的基本条款将结转到新宪法，因此只提一些最重要的建议，以进一步加强保护。承认这些义务的新宪法应包括以下规定：

·         保证给予公民身份，包括向贱民提供公民身份证书。

·         保护所有人平等和不受歧视权利，要求确保正式且真实的平等，禁止任何理由的歧视，批判"不可接触性"和种族歧视，规定"特殊条款以确保在所有权利的享受上获得真正的平等，包括雇佣和教育"。

·         根据人口比例，确保贱民有意义地参与国家机构与决策的权利，包括起草新宪法和参与国家发展活动。

·         对于拒绝贱民成为会员、领导人或政治位置提名资格的政党，应禁止其注册登记。

·         保证贱民拥有所有的自由，包括宗教自由和自由联姻的权利， 保证在这些公民权利和政治权利上没有对其在现实中得以实践进行任何违法或不当的限制。

·         确保贱民的经济、社会和文化权，保证其可司法性，并具体地确保下列权利：教育权、环境干净的权利、达到最高可能身体和精神健康和获得免费基本健康服务的权利、以及其下保函的健康因素，如水和安全充裕的住房的权利、财产权，包括通过确保土地权利或当贱民的土地所有权因先前歧视受到损害时获得补偿的权利。

·         保证贱民儿童的权利，保证他/她的身份和名字的权利，以及被培养、基本健康和社会保障的权利，禁止对儿童的任何剥削，确认儿童的的基本利益是所有涉及儿童权利行动中的首要考虑因素。

·         确保贱民有不受酷刑和其他残酷、不人道或有辱人格的待遇或惩罚的权利，禁止任何形式的肉体和精神折磨，确保对所有这些行为进行法律制裁，根据行为的性质给予相应惩罚。

·         确保宪法权利和保护条款，保障贱民权利得以实施和执行，确保执法机构、司法制度和政府委员会将"不可接触"作为一项严重犯罪来对待。

实施和可执行性问题

临时宪法，特别是第32条款（宪法修改权）、第33条款（国家职责）和107条（最高法院的司法权），承认权利必须通过执行才有意义。为了确保执法部门、司法机构和政府委员会推进而非削弱权利，并因此将不可接触作为严重犯罪来对待，新宪法应该去除对权利保障的任何违法限制，赋予公民和非公民向最高法院申诉的宪法权利，可以将某项法律公告为非宪法的。新宪法还应该加强国际委员会的权力，规定国家人权委员会财务独立，成立国家贱民委员会，成为一个合法机构。这些变化将有助于终结种姓歧视的免责现象，确保贱民真正享受平等权利，包括那些面临多种歧视的人群。

结论

在起草新宪法时，国民代表大会肩负着至高的使命，即在尼泊尔冗长内站结束后重塑和平，履行尼泊尔的国际法律义务，确保根本权利。一旦国民代表大会做出了与上述建议相符的宪法保护和保障，那么国家必须采取更进一步的立法、行政、预算、司法和教育措施，以消除和预防公共和私有领域内的种姓歧视，尊重、推进、实施和监督那些面临种姓歧视人群的人权情况。

声明全文请见http://www.chrgj.org/press/docs/nepalconstitutionpressrelease.pdf

Recasting Justice: Securing Dalit Rights in Nepal's New Constitution

Introduction

In creating the new constitution for Nepal, the Constituent Assembly has the opportunity to crystallize the country's peace, advance Nepal's political, economic and social development, and demonstrate a commitment to the inherent dignity of all individuals.  In order to fulfill these paramount goals, the rights of all of Nepal's Dalit population - especially women and "lower" Dalit castes - must finally be realized.

This Joint Statement draws on Nepal's international human rights obligations to identify how to best achieve the rights of Dalits.  Taking the Interim Constitution as a predictor of future constitutional arrangements, this Joint Statement also concretely identifies how to enhance the effectiveness of these constitutional provisions.  Experience in Nepal, and in other caste-affected countries such as India, has shown that guaranteeing rights on paper is not enough; strong implementation and enforcement are critical to close the gap between a constitutional vision and the social reality to date.

Factual and Legal Starting Points

The pervasive caste system in Nepal has a firm hold on society.  At its root, it is nothing but a discrimination system in which certain people, by virtue of their birth into a particular social group, are forever branded as inferior.  This distinction defines every conceivable aspect of a Dalit's existence, including citizenship, access to land, health, and education.  The grossest manifestation of this discrimination system is the practice of "untouchability" - the complete repudiation and segregation from other castes, including a prohibition on touching non-Dalits and their possessions, upon belief that Dalits are "polluted". 

Both government and private actors subject Dalits to extreme forms of exploitation, including: community segregation; prohibition on entering public spaces; denial of access to food, water, and land; and coercion into caste-based occupations deemed too "spiritually impure" for "higher castes".  Attempts by Dalits to defy this social order are met with punitive violence and social ostracism, and the State frequently fails to prevent or punish such acts. 

Moreover, Dalit women and girls endure the intersectional burden of caste and gender discrimination, and they bear the brunt of exploitation and violence.  Additionally, Madhesi Dalits in the Southern region and certain Dalit castes like GAINE and BADI are more marginalized and excluded and thereby face further barriers to enjoyment of human rights. 

Nepal's International Human Rights Obligations

Nepal's implicit and explicit endorsement of caste discrimination is illegal under international law.  Nepal is a party to the following international human rights treaties: the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). 

These treaties create binding obligations that must be carried out in good faith to respect, protect and fulfill rights.  Core among these obligations are non-discrimination (in both intent and effect) and equality, both formal (de jure) and substantive (de facto). 

Nepal's human rights record has been examined by the relevant treaty bodies that monitor the treaties' implementation.  These bodies have found that Nepal has not fulfilled many of its international legal obligations, despite the fact that these obligations continue to apply to Nepal irrespective of the political mechanisms that are envisaged in the transition to democracy.

Securing Dalit Rights in the New Constitution

This Joint Statement assumes that the essential articles in Nepal's Interim Constitution will be carried over into the new constitution and makes only the most important recommendations to improve these protections.  A new constitution that affirms these obligations should contain provisions to:

·         Ensure access to citizenship, including the provision of citizenship certificates to Dalits.

·         Protect the right to equality and non-discrimination for all persons by requiring formal and substantive equality, prohibiting discrimination on any ground, repudiating "utouchability" and racial discrimination, and providing for "special provisions to ensure real equality in the enjoyment of all rights, including employment and education.

·         Secure the right of Dalits to meaningfully participate in State structures and decision-making, including the drafting of the new constitution and national development activities, on the basis of proportional inclusion. 

·         Prohibit registration of political parties that exclude Dalits in membership, leadership or nomination for political positions.

·         Guarantee all freedoms to Dalits, including freedom of religion and the right to marry freely, and ensure that there are no unlawful or undue restrictions on these civil and political rights which prevent their implementation in practice.

·         Ensure Dalits' economic, social and cultural rights, by guaranteeing their justiciability and by specifically ensuring: education rights; the right to a clean environment; the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and free basic health services, along with the underlying determinants of health, such as water and safe, adequate housing; rights regarding labor, employment and social security; and the right to property, including through ensuring entitlement to tenure or comparable redress in cases where Dalits' land tenure has been compromised by previous discrimination.

·         Guarantee Dalits' children's rights by: guaranteeing the right to his or her identity and name, as well as the right to be nurtured, to basic health and social security; prohibiting all exploitation of children; and affirming that the child's best interests are the primary consideration in actions involving the rights of children.

·         Ensure the rights of Dalit women by: prohibiting discrimination and violence against women; requiring all appropriate measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct; and guaranteeing property rights, reproductive rights and rights concerning family relations.

·         Ensure Dalits' right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading (CID) treatment or punishment by prohibiting all acts of physical and mental torture or CID treatment  and ensuring that all such acts are punishable by law and by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.

·         Realize constitutional rights and protections by ensuring that Dalits' rights are implemented and enforced and that law enforcement, the judiciary and government commissions treat untouchability as a serious crime. 

Issues of Implementation and Enforceability

The Interim Constitution, particularly through Articles 32 (Right to Constitutional Remedy), 33 (Responsibilities of the State) and 107 (Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court), recognizes that rights must be enforced to be meaningful.  To ensure that law enforcement, the judiciary, and government commissions promote rather than undermine rights and consequently treat untouchability as a serious crime, the new constitution should remove unlawful restrictions on rights guarantees and give both citizens and non-citizens the constitutional right to petition the Supreme Court to have a law declared unconstitutional.  The new constitution should also strengthen the national commissions, by providing for the financial autonomy of the National Human Rights Commission and establishing the National Dalit Commission as a constitutional body.  These changes will help end impunity for caste-based discrimination and ensure Dalits' real enjoyment of equality, including for those who face multiple forms of discrimination.

Conclusion

In drafting the new constitution, the Constituent Assembly is tasked with the paramount responsibilities of crystallizing the peace after Nepal's prolonged civil war and fulfilling Nepal's international legal obligations to secure fundamental rights.   Once the Constituent Assembly has made constitutional protections and guarantees in line with the recommendations above, the State must take further legislative, administrative, budgetary, judicial and educational measures to eliminate and prevent caste-based discrimination in both the public and private spheres and to respect, promote, implement and monitor the human rights of those facing cast discrimination. 

To see the full statement, please visit: http://www.chrgj.org/press/docs/nepalconstitutionpressrelease.pdf

To see the entire report, please visit: http://www.chrgj.org/projects/docs/recastingjustice.pdf