Date: Thursday, 8 July 2021

Time: 5.00 – 6.00 PM (GMT+7)

Platform: Zoom, Facebook Live

Registration: http://l.forum-asia.org/TiedHandsRegistration

The report, Tied Hands: Fact Finding Mission Report on Harawa-Charawa – Debt, Poverty and Climate Change in Dhanusha, Nepal, is a joint initiative between FORUM-ASIA and one of its members in Nepal, Community Self-Reliance Centre (CSRC) to assess the situation of Harawa-Charawa bonded labourers in Nepal through the lens of human rights, climate change and poverty.

Findings of the report, based on interviews and documentation of lived realities of Harawa-Charawa in Dhanauji, in Dhanusha district of Nepal, indicate a significant correlation between their conditions of poverty and their systematic political, social and economic exclusion. The Harawa- Charawa are not only deprived of their dignity and ability to live free from hunger and social exclusion, but are also disproportionately threatened by the extreme and unpredictable weather conditions induced by climate change.

This report is also a modest attempt to bridge the gap in understanding and reflections of experiences of those living in conditions of extreme poverty in the mainstream analysis of human rights identified by former Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston in his 2017 report to the UN Human Rights Council.

This project is supported by Brot für die Welt [Bread for the World, BftW].

This event aims to:

• Publicly launch the report, Tied Hands: Fact Finding Mission Report on Harawa-Charawa: Debt, Poverty and Climate Change in Dhanusha, Nepal and share the findings of the with relevant stakeholders including the UN human rights experts, diplomatic community and civil society and media,
• Raise public awareness on about the situation of land rights in Nepal and the Harawa-Charawa in Dhanauji; and,
• Respond to the SR on Extreme Poverty and Human Right’s 2016, 2017 and 2019 reports;

Speakers:

• Dominique Calañas, Programme Associate, FORUM-ASIA
• Jagat Deuja, Land Policy Expert, Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC)
• Amit Saha, Representative of the Harawa-Charawa communities
• Umesh Sah (translator), Programme Coordinator and Harawa-Charawa Activist, Dalit Society Welfare Committee Nepal
• Sundip Shrestha, Field Researcher, Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC)

Moderated by Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu, Executive Director, FORUM-ASIA

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Media contact:

For more information, please contact Melissa Ananthraj, Communication and Media Programme Manager, FORUM-ASIA at [email protected]