Himalayan Human Rights Monitors (HimRights) established its LifeLine to protect human values and norms against grave human rights violations. LifeLine was established as a campaign to address systematic and gross patterns of human rights violations. It also addresses the highly deplorable state of dehumanization in the armed conflict between Maoist and government of Nepal, a conflict that demanded an alarming response from the human rights defenders. This concept was born as consequence of research on conflict, migration, and trafficking in three districts: Makwanpur, Rautahat and Bara in 2003. During the research, the team members found both warring parties had committed massive human rights violations in these areas. Families, women, and children often found themselves caught in a tense environment between the two opposing sides. Maoist troops demanded villagers' food and shelter, despite their limited food supplies and many villagers forced or voluntarily joined them. On the other hand, the State was active in arrests, extra-judicial killings, and disappearances of people named Maoist suspects. People had no idea if their family members were alive or dead or their whereabouts after abduction, arrests and extra judicial disappearances. People did not trust each other to share information or seek the whereabouts of those disappeared for fear of retaliation and further penalization. Threatened with violence, these families had no other choice but to act as directed. This subsequently left them vulnerable to attacks by security forces on accusations of collaboration with Maoists. This has become a common story told by rural families throughout Nepal: there was no existing system to file or seek justice. Thus, HimRights felt that it was necessary to provide a platform where people could file complaints, share grievances, and seek help to identify the whereabouts of family members. Furthermore, if they chose not to identify themselves, HimRights would respect their privacy.
HimRights LifeLine serves as a platform to report, monitor, and respond to human rights violations caused by internal conflict. LifeLine also advocates within the national and international forum on human rights violations related to armed conflict and plays the role of the mediator for rescue, release, fact-finding, and advocacy.
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