MINORITY YOUTH: TOWARDS DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES 10th session of the Forum on Minority Issues Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Dates: 30 November and 1 December 2017 Venue: Room XX of the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland Remarks by Basant Kumar Kushwaha, Non-Resident Madheshis Association Hon’ble Chairman Mr. Kurdi, Distinguished Guests and Delegations of this 10 th Session of the Forum on Minority Issues being held in Geneva, On behalf of people of Nepal, and international president of the Non-Resident Madheshis Association representing the Madheshi community worldwide, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to present our views and recommendations, that I am informed, will be brought to the Human Rights Council at its 37th session. As distinguished participants know, this Forum on Minority Issues was established pursuant to the Human Rights Council resolution 6/15 of 28th September 2007 and therefore we are thankful to Human Rights Council for providing such a platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. Only last month, on 16th October, my country Nepal was elected to the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by the UN General Assembly to a three-year term beginning 1st January 2018. Nepal has been elected as a member for the first time since creation in 2006 of HRC, the United Nations body responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe, and it is a matter of honour for us. But the million dollar question is: how can a government that does not care about protecting human rights and ensuring justice for its own citizens care about protecting the human rights of others? After a decade long civil war, which resulted in killing of 17,000 and disappearance of 1300, most of them youths, Nepal has yet to make any progress in giving justice to victims of war crimes committed both by the state and the Maoist rebels. Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) formed to investigate the killings and disappearances during the civil war has already registered more than 62,000 cases so far, but the Nepalese Government is reluctant to pursue investigation and has not made much progress since it was promised 11 years ago, in the peace deal of November 2006. With the end of the civil war in 2006, the Nepalese Government targeted youths of Madheshi and other minority communities, demanding their rights in the upcoming Page 1 of 4