The Advisory Council of Jurists recommends that:
1. While national security concerns are important to Nepal, they need to be balanced with
the human rights guarantees contained in the Constitution of Nepal, and international
treaties to which Nepal is a party, as well as the customary rules of international law
which bind all States.
2. The Terrorism Ordinance defines terrorist activities widely. Care must be taken that it is
not used to restrict freedom of opinion, expression and peaceful assembly or to target
vulnerable groups.
3. The legal ability to derogate from the rights contained in the Constitution of Nepal should
be interpreted to give the fullest effect possible to the human rights guaranteed in the
Constitution and in light of the limits on derogation imposed by the ICCPR.
4. The constitutional requirement that a detainee be informed ‘as soon as may be’ of the
grounds of such arrest should be interpreted in light of the requirements set out in
Principle 10 of the Body of Principles on Detention.
5. In administering counter-terrorism measures that may apply to children, care must be
taken to ensure that the “best interests of the child” principle is a primary consideration.
New Zealand
Of the human rights instruments most relevant to this reference, New Zealand is a party to the
ICCPR,240 First Optional Protocol,241 Second Optional Protocol,242 CAT,243 CRC,244 CERD245
and the Refugee Convention.246. New Zealand does not have a written constitution but the
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1991 (BORA) provides for a number of rights and freedoms
240
New Zealand ratified the ICCPR on 27 December 1978.
New Zealand acceded to the First Optional Protocol on 26 August 1989.
242
New Zealand ratified the Second Optional Protocol on 11 July 1991.
243
New Zealand ratified the CAT on 9 December 1989.
244
New Zealand ratified the CRC on 6 April 1993.
245
New Zealand ratified the CERD on 22 November 1972.
246
New Zealand acceded to the Refugees Convention on 30 June 1960 and to the Refugees Protocol on 6
August 1973.
241
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