Backgrounder: The Case of Shree Kumar Rai
Shree Kumar Rai, a refugee who came to Canada over 10 years ago to escape torture and police oppression in his native Nepal, was accepted into sanctuary by Ottawa’s First Unitarian Congregation on Feb. 27 after exhausting the refugee appeal process and being ordered to be deported on that date.
Initially a teacher, Mr. Rai always opposed violence and fought for human rights. As a student activist he had been arrested and detained for three months in 1985 for protesting against the dictatorship that was then in power. Then the Maoists accused him of working against their party and forced him to pay money to their cause.
Between 1993 and 1995 he was arrested and tortured twice by authorities in Nepal and then forced into hiding in order to escape the police, who claimed he had collaborated with the opposition. . A friend who was arrested with him died during the time they were detained. When police came to his home to arrest Mr. Rai for a third time in 1995 he was not at home, so they arrested his father instead. His father died as a result of injuries sustained during his detention.
Mr. Rai moved to Kathmandu in 1995 in order to hide, but then fled Nepal when his new home was raided by police and another of his friends was arrested. He could find no safe place to live or hide in Nepal. Since arriving in Canada in June 1996 he has worked as a sushi chef in Montreal while seeking to be accepted in Canada as a refugee.
He was ordered deported in April 2006 and his final avenue of appeal, an application to the Federal Court of Canada for judicial review, was rejected in January of this year. Soon after he received a final order for deportation. Details of his appeals are attached.
Risk of Torture
Mr. Rai’s fate may now rest with the Committee against Torture, an arm of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Refugees. His application under Article 22 of the international Convention against Torture requests the Committee to assess Mr. Rai’s risk of being tortured and “to take appropriate interim measures to prevent Canada from deporting Mr. Shree, thereby violating the Convention against Torture.” It goes on to state:
“There is an obligation in international law for Canada to have a simple and effective remedy where there is the risk of a violation of fundamental rights, particularly as in the present case where we are speaking of the right to life and the right to be free of torture and inhumane treatment.”
On February 23 the Committee agreed to consider Mr. Rai’s appeal, but did not agree to request interim measures. Canada has six months in which to challenge the complaint or to respond to it.
The Canadian government’s position is that Mr. Rai does not face substantial risk of torture if returned to Nepal. In an April 25, 2006, letter to Mr. Rai, Citizenship and Immigration Canada stated that his application to remain in Canada after Pre-Removal Risk Assessment had been rejected because:
“It has been determined that you would not be subject to risk of persecution, torture, risk to life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment and punishment if returned to your country of nationality or habitual residence.”
Other parties who have assessed Mr. Rai’s case and the risks faced by citizens in Nepal do not concur. On Feb. 18, 2007, Joan Auden, chair of the Board of First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa and a social worker who has dealt with many refugee cases, conducted an assessment of Mr. Rai. Based on a three-hour interview, the application of the DSM-IV criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and other tools, she concluded:
“Both the personal interview and the application of the DSM-IV criteria indicate conclusively that Shree continues to suffer from severe, chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
Her report continued:
“The present situation in Nepal was discussed with Shree. He states that in spite of the ceasefire (in Nepal) there have been more than 20 murders in his home area in the last month. He knows that children are still being recruited by the Maoists and that they and the army both deny that children under 18 are being recruited. Shree is very worried about his son as he is now 15. For this reason and for her own safety his wife has moved the family many times – frequent moving is the means used by Nepali people to ‘hide’. Shree speaks with his wife once each week. She has told him that he is not safe to return. Shree believes that the army and the police will meet him at the airport upon his arrival and he will be detained. He does not think that he can survive another beating or detention with torture.”
“In the past 14 months Shree has aged considerably. The stress is visible in the lines of his face and the watering of his eyes. His legs move constantly in nervous response. When fear is triggered, his eyes tear up and the lines around his forehead become prominent. He states that he was feeling much better between the time of his first assessment (also by Ms. Auden) in November, 2005 and May of 2006 when his Humanitarian and Compassionate application was rejected. . . . When the application failed, he immediately slipped back into a world of nightmares, flashbacks and interrupted sleep. He was re-traumatized.
“Shree’s whole demeanour was one of a despairing, concerned and worried person. At no time did I feel that he was dishonest or fabricating his fear . . . Shree is struggling to understand how the Canadian government can deport him to certain torture. He thought he was leaving oppression behind to find a safe haven. Shree was a social activist who fought for democracy.”
Evidence from Nepal
In December 2006, Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission reported on the human rights situation in Nepal during the ceasefire of the previous six months that had been negotiated by the government and Nepal’s major political parties, including the Maoist rebels. The NHRC found that a total of 43 persons were killed during the reporting period, 11 by state forces and 15 by the Maoist rebels. The Commission reported:
“During the period, police continued physical tortures in their custodies and Nepalese Army members were found beating common civilians and police . . . Similarly, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist were also found continuing with tortures under different pretexts in various districts . . . the CPN-Maoist continued with their previous acts of presenting persons to their courts forcefully, collecting donation, seizure of properties, denial to return the properties that they had seized during armed conflict, collecting taxes and money. . . . They were also found installing camps at schools and public buildings, and abducting students and common civilians.”
In January of this year Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (and a Canadian), made an official visit to review the protection and promotion of human rights in Nepal under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). Speaking in Kathmandu, she said that “respect for human rights must be the cornerstone upon which the rule of law is established” and called for special efforts to be made to ensure that threats of violence in regional and rural communities “belong to the past.”
“In this context, … since the signing of the CPA, our teams have monitored continuing serious human rights abuses in the districts, especially by cadres of the CPN-Maoist who have been responsible for abductions as well as torture and ill-treatment in some cases. Such abuses must end – now.”
Mme. Arbour summed up her six-day visit as follows:
“During my visit I have focused on two major issues. First is the need to end impunity (defined as freedom or exemption from punishment for human rights abuses granted to police and government authorities). The people of Nepal have suffered killings, torture, disappearances and other gross violations on a massive scale. [Secondly], as conflict has receded, issues relating to discrimination are emerging as major factors to be addressed. Resolving both are crucial to building sustainable peace.”
Amnesty: Grave Concern
Amnesty International echoed Mme. Arbour’s campaign, stating on Jan. 31, 2007 that “Amnesty International is gravely concerned about the outburst of violence in the Terai region in southern Nepal [from which Mr. Rai comes]. At least eight people have been killed and scores of people injured in clashes between protestors and police.”
In an earlier release Amnesty International Canada stated that;
“The security forces have arrested more than 3,000 people – including political leaders, student activists and trade unionists belonging to or aligned with the mainstream political parties. Human rights defenders, including many journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, are at a high risk of violent reprisal or arrest, including those who have been critical either of the Maoists or the security forces. People suspected of being members or sympathizers of the CPN (Maoist) are at serious risk of being arrested, tortured, “disappeared:” or killed by the security forces, regardless of which areas of the country they come from. . . Amnesty International urges governments to refrain from forcibly returning any persons to Nepal as they might be exposed to risks of grave human rights violations committed by the state and/or by non-state agents of persecution, without being able to access effective and durable state protection. . . ”
Mr. Rai is asking Amnesty International to support his efforts to stay in Canada and avoid deportation to Nepal.
First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa
Ottawa’s First Unitarian Congregation is a church with 600 members located at 30 Cleary Ave. in Ottawa’s west end. The church has an active refugee committee and a strong commitment to social action. Shree Kumar Rai is the second refugee the church has taken into sanctuary. In 2004 the Congregation gave refuge to Samsu Mia, a Bangladeshi who was threatened by senior officials of his country after he left his job at his country’s High Commission in Ottawa because of mistreatment and withholding of his wages. Mr. Mia spent 18 months in sanctuary at the church before the federal government agreed to grant him refuge in Canada and allow his family to join him from Bangladesh.
There are currently 8 known refugees in sanctuary in churches across Canada.
Appendix: Mr. Rai’s Appeals
Shree Kumar Rai is a 44-year old teacher and native of Nepal. Following is a chronology of his appeals:
June 1996: Mr. Rai flees Nepal for Canada after his home in Kathmandu is raided and two of friends arrested. He had previously had his house raided three times, been arrested twice, been tortured and beaten, and had suffered the deaths of his father and of a friend as a result of detention.
July 1996: Mr. Rai makes his first application in Canada for refugee protection.
March 2000: The Immigration and Refugee Board rejects his claim on the grounds that Mr. Rai had been a member in the United People’s Front, a party linked to Nepal’s communist opposition, and hence was not eligible for protection under the UN’s Convention against Torture.
July 2001: The Federal Court of Canada reverses the original IRB decision and allows Mr. Rai’s application for judicial review, on the grounds that mere membership in an opposition party was not enough to deny refugee protection.
November 2004: The IRB again rejects Mr. Rai’s claim for refugee protection, finding there was insufficient evidence to support his subjective fear of return to Nepal.
February 2005: King Gyanendra seizes power in Nepal and cracks down on political parties, student organizations and other opposition groups. He cuts Nepal off from the rest of the world by shutting down the Internet and telephone lines.
Late 2005 and March 2006: Mr. Rai applies to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds and requests a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment to assess the risks he would face if deported.
April, May 2006: Both appeals are rejected by the same federal official. Mr. Rai is ordered to be deported in June of 2006.
June 2006: Federal Court grants a stay of removal and then grants a judicial review of the refusal of Mr. Rai’s H&C and PRRA appeals.
January 2007: After a November hearing on the application for judicial review the Federal Court rejects Mr. Rai’s application for judicial review.
February 2007: A new date for deportation is fixed for February 27, 2007. Mr. Rai files an appeal to the UN Committee against Torture and enters sanctuary on Feb. 27 at the First Unitarian Congregation.
March 22, 2007
For further information:
Rev. Brian Kopke, First Unitarian Congregation, 613-725-1066
Joan Auden, First Unitarian Congregation, 613-730-1716
Michael Cassidy, First Unitarian Congregation, 613-829-4231