Two Nepali non-governmental
organizations have submitted an urgent communication to UN rights experts informing
that legal prohibition on cow-slaughter in Nepal infringes indigenous peoples’
right to freedom of religion and cultural rights and threatens the secularity
of the Nepali state.
Lawyers' Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous
Peoples and National Coalition Against Racial Discrimination sent in the joint communication on Friday to
four UN Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Promotion
and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression the Field of
Cultural Rights, and the Freedom of Religion or Belief.
“The communication is
submitted to raise the issue of the continued
prosecution of indigenous peoples under Nepal’s law against cow-slaughter—a law
deeply rooted and wholly justified by Hindu (and therefore non-secular
principles) and one which historically has been used to carry out the State’s
forced cultural assimilation of indigenous peoples and to forge a homogenous identity
for Nepali citizens,” the NGOs write.
