Governments in countries with caste systems should respond to the call from a top UN official to end this form of discrimination.

This Memorandum, submitted by Accountability Watch Committee, Advocacy Forum Nepal, Amnesty International, Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Human Rights Watch, International Center for Transitional Justice, International Commission of Jurists and Informal Sector Service Centre to the government of Nepal, includes some comments and recommendations on the latest draft of the Disappearances of Persons (Crime and Punishment) Bill 2066 (hereinafter the Bill).

Ganga Baral is among the first of thousands of Bhutanese refugees who will be arriving in the United States during the next several years. She and her family arrived this Spring in Phoenix from a refugee camp in the farthest eastern reaches of Nepal, a landlocked country known to Americans, if at all, as the location for Mount Everest.

Although the Security Council has identified six grave violations against children in armed conflict, to date it has focused primarily on the recruitment and use of child soldiers. Other violations affect much larger numbers of children, and result in terrible and long-lasting consequences, but have not received the same focused international response.

The Maoist-led Nepali government should make accountability for human rights abuses before, during, and after the conflict in Nepal an urgent priority.

We write to you to ask you to make accountability for human rights abuses before, during, and after the conflict in Nepal an urgent priority for your government, and to ensure that those responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances and other serious human rights abuses are investigated and prosecuted.

The Nepalese government should submit the draft Disappearances and Truth and Reconciliation bills to the Constituent Assembly for consideration to ensure transparency and public participation in the legislative process.

Nepalese authorities should promptly and impartially investigate and prosecute alleged ruling party activists responsible for an attack on journalists on December 21, 2008.