Nepal, Date: 02/05/07
165. D. C., a 16-year-old from Tarahara VDC-8, and Ms. Sarita Choudhary, a 20-year-old from Pakali VDC-1. Both women belong to a low caste in the Sunsari district of Terai, where the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is exercising delegated authority. On 9 April 2007, the couple filed an official complaint to the Nepal National Human Rights Commission in relation to harassment and threats of abduction from their families or Maoists in relation to their homosexual relationship. The couple is currently hiding. On 2 March 2007, the women were abducted by Maoists from Pakali village when they were on their way to celebrate the annual Hindu Holi festival. They were taken into custody at the Maoist camp in Singiya village, Sunsari district, and intensively interrogated about their sexuality. They were told that their blood would be tested to determine whether they were lesbian. The women were released after ten hours on the condition that they return with staff from the Human Welfare Society to their parents.
Staff of the Human Welfare Society was also summoned to the camp and subjected to part of the interrogation. D.C. was forcibly returned by her parents to her family home on several occasions, most recently on 22 March 2007. Her parents and her brother (who is a Maoist) informed the Maoists about their relationship in order to encourage them to discontinue their relationship and lifestyle. The two young women, who commenced living together in the beginning of 2006, have been hiding in different places since their respective families do not approve. In October 2006, Ms. Dukhani Choudhary and Ms. Sarita Choudhary were abducted and held in the Maoist camp in Lochani village in Morang District. At the camp, the Maoists called the couple derogatory names for homosexuals including “chakka” and “hijara” and ordered the girls to join the Maoist party and undergo the training for the Maoist militia.
As the young women refused to join the Maoist party and carry weapons, they were beaten, verbally abused, and deprived of food almost everyday. After being detained for almost one month, they managed to escape from the camp and went into hiding.
Link to full text of the report: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/10session/A.HRC.10.44.Add.4_EFS.pdf