When we first arrived in Nepal, we noticed this sign.  Its in front of quite an impressive new building, close to our neighbourhood.  It caught my eye as the concept of a Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority, seemed quite startling.  Its no secret, however, that this country has a record of corruption and the existence of this type of commission is a good thing.  I would stare at the sign every time we drove past it, wishing I knew more about what the commission does and how it effective it is.   It was intriguing to me, but I never felt able to blog about it as the corruption subject is huge and I don’t feel qualified to comment.

However, the State Department recently posted it 2013 Human Rights Report for Nepal on State.gov, and I learnt a little about what goes on there.  Here’s an excerpt from the report:

Corruption: After five years without commissioners, the interim government named a chief commissioner and one associate commissioner to head the NEPAL 18 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA), which is mandated to investigate official acts of corruption. Under new leadership, the CIAA took high-profile actions against the Nepal Energy Authority, the Department of Immigration, and the Department of Foreign Employment. In August and September, the CIAA arrested 18 officials from the Department of Immigration, 15 from the Department of Foreign Employment, and nine from the Tribhuvan International Airport Labor Desk for sending 77 Nepali migrants to Qatar with fraudulent or improper documentation – a human trafficking-related offense. The most senior official arrested was the director general of the Department of Foreign Employment. All the officials were in detention pending trial. There were numerous reports of corrupt actions by government officials, political parties, and party-affiliated organizations. The UCPN(M) and CPN-M, in particular, reportedly demanded money from schools, businesses, workers, private citizens, and NGOs. There were less frequent reports that student and labor groups associated with other political parties also demanded contributions from schools and businesses. Corruption and impunity remained general problems within the Nepal Police.

From the State Dept NEPAL 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT