Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Bhutan

Introduction

1. Human Rights Watch submits the following information regarding Bhutan’s human rights record since its 2019 Universal Periodic Review (UPR), including efforts towards implementation of recommendations Bhutan supported, as well as continuing concerns relating to recommendations Bhutan noted, and information about human rights violations not addressed in the 2019 review.[1] It is not a complete review of all recommendations accepted by Bhutan, nor is it a comprehensive review of Bhutan’s protection of human rights. 
2. Bhutan has taken some positive steps since 2019, including 2020 legislation to decriminalize same sex relations – a recommendation made by several states in the third cycle review which was supported by Bhutan.[2]
3. Members of Nepali speaking communities, which have historically suffered severe rights violations and discrimination, report that treatment of their communities has improved in recent years. However, some forms of discrimination continue, including in relation to the recognition of citizenship for many Nepali speaking Bhutanese residing in Bhutan. In the third cycle review Bhutan noted recommendations by several states in relation to citizenship rights, non-discrimination against Nepali speakers, and the right to return of Nepali speaking refugees who were expelled in around 1990.[3]
4. Independent information about human rights in Bhutan is limited, partly due to self-censorship of the media resulting from government policies. For example, the government intervenes in the media sector through the Bhutan Media Foundation, an institution under royal patronage.[4] Defamation and libel remain criminal offenses, although Bhutan supported a recommendation to prevent their misuse in the previous UPR cycle.[5] Journalists and ordinary citizens have described to Human Rights Watch a prevailing atmosphere in which they feel unable to publicly discuss issues deemed “controversial” by the authorities, including on social media.
5. Civil society organizations also operate under significant constraints. In 2023, the government’s Civil Society Organisations Authority shut down a body known as the Bhutan Civil Society Network, which had been established by civil society organizations to coordinate their work.[6] In its 2023 tenth periodic report on Bhutan, the CEDAW Committee said it was “concerned at the indication by the [Bhutanese government] delegation that the number of NGOs in the State party should remain limited.”[7] In particular, CSOs and NGOs seeking to address concerns of the Nepali speaking community are unable to exist in Bhutan. There is no national human rights commission. In the previous UPR cycle Bhutan noted four recommendations to establish a national human rights institution.[8]
6. Bhutan has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC, as well as two optional protocols, CRC-OP-AC and CRC-OP-SC), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In the previous UPR cycle Bhutan noted numerous recommendations to join core human rights conventions, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).[9] Nevertheless, Bhutan is bound by customary international human rights law as reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bhutan noted two recommendations to issue a standing invitation to special procedures or to “respond constructively” to requests for country visits by special procedures.[10]

Abuses Against So-Called “Political Prisoners”

7. This submission primarily focuses on abuses against long term prisoners termed “political prisoners” by the Bhutanese government, which were not addressed in the previous UPR cycle.[11]
8. The Prison Act of Bhutan (2009) defines political prisoner as “any person convicted for conspiring, attempting, soliciting, abetting or committing offenses against the Tsa-Wa-Sum [king, country and people].”[12] Most of these detainees are held in a dedicated block within Chemgang prison, near Thimphu, that former prisoners say is known as the “anti” block, short for “anti-national.” Authorities refer to the political prisoners as “rajbandi” (state or royal prisoners) and the guards address them as “traitors.” Others are held in the isolated and secretive prison at Rabuna, or in other facilities.
9. While the total number of political prisoners in Bhutan is unknown, Human Rights Watch has collected information relating to 36 current prisoners who were first detained between 1990 and 2010 for alleged offences that occurred between 1990 and 2008.[13] Most of these inmates were convicted under the draconian and vaguely worded 1992 National Security Act (NSA).[14]  The NSA’s overbroad provisions forbid treasonable acts against the Tsa-Wa-Sum (king, people and country). The law does not define “treasonable acts” or what would constitute “betrayal” or “harm to the national interest.” In addition to offenses under the NSA, some political prisoners were convicted of parallel offenses under the Penal Code.[15]
10. At least 24 political prisoners are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, while the remainder are serving terms of between 15 and 43 years. They include 31 men belonging to Bhutan’s Nepali-speaking community imprisoned for alleged actions in opposition to abuses against and the expulsion of Nepali speakers from Bhutan in the 1990s, as well as four men and one woman belonging to the Sharchop (“Easterner”) community imprisoned for alleged connections to a banned political party, the Druk National Congress, which campaigned for parliamentary democracy and human rights. All of the alleged offences occurred before the democratic constitutional reforms of 2008.
11. Former and current prisoners, and relatives of prisoners, told Human Rights Watch that the authorities severely tortured detainees both to extract confessions and to punish them, and that they had no legal representation at their trials. Former prisoners said that they were produced in court and asked to confirm prosecution statements that had been coerced under torture. In 2019, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention interviewed several people then imprisoned under national security legislation.[16] The Working Group found “a number of due process violations when the individuals had been tried some 25 years ago. The Working Group is aware that, at the time, there were no legal practitioners in the country.”
12. The fact that all these prisoners belong to communities that have faced persecution in recent decades, the use of torture to extract confessions, the denial of fair trial rights, and their continuing incarceration, is despite provisions in Bhutan’s 2008 Constitution that purport to guarantee nondiscrimination and equality before the law, fair trials, and the prohibition of torture.[17]
13. Several prisoners or their relatives reported to Human Rights Watch that prisoners have suffered severe and persistent health problems, including as a result of torture. Those with physical illnesses do not receive adequate treatment in prison, which former prisoners said may have contributed to the death of two people. A prisoner who was released in 2023 having served 29 years after confessing to distributing political literature, told Human Rights Watch that the remaining political prisoners face food shortages and have inadequate medical care, as well as inadequate clothing and bedding.[18] Prisoners are prevented from making or receiving telephone calls to Nepal or other countries where relatives who became refugees have resettled, or from sending letters, while their families do not know whether the letters they send are delivered. The lack of communication causes anguish to both the prisoners and their families.
14. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded in 2019 that “those detainees serving life sentences have no prospect of release, with the exception of amnesty.”[19] The Sentencing Guideline of the Judiciary of Bhutan (2022) states that an offender “sentenced to life in prison shall remain in prison until he or she dies or until pardoned or otherwise commuted to a fixed period, or receives Royal pardon, amnesty or clemency.”[20]  In 1999, the king at that time, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, granted amnesty  to 40 political prisoners, including some serving life sentences.[21] In 2022, the present king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, granted amnesty to a political prisoner serving a life term.[22]

Recommendations

15. At Bhutan’s Universal Periodic Review states should recommend Bhutan’s authorities to:

• unconditionally release political prisoners incarcerated for exercising their fundamental human rights or as a result of trials that violated due process;
• review all criminal convictions resulting in lengthy prison sentences to ensure that fair trial standards were met, including the rights to legal representation and freedom from torture;
• undertake reforms of the legal system to bring it into compliance with international human rights law and fair trial guarantees;
• ensure that all prisoners receive basic standards of care including food, adequate bedding, warm clothes, and medical treatment, and that they are able to communicate with their families and receive visits;
• allow independent monitoring of prison conditions;
• issue a standing invitation to UN special procedures;
• review the National Security Act and amend it to comply with international standards on human rights protections;
• ratify core international human rights treaties including the ICCPR and CAT;
• establish an independent national human rights institution;
• allow civil society organizations to organize freely and to work on any issue they choose;
• end citizenship discrimination against Nepali speaking Bhutanese.