Nepal: Call for accountability over protest crackdown, urging an end to digital repression and police misuse of force

Paris, Geneva, Kathmandu - 9 September 2025 - The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, and civil society partners from Nepal condemn the reported killing of at least 19 protestors and the injuring of hundreds more during demonstrations against corruption and the Nepal Government's blanket ban on 26 social media and messaging platforms.

The brutal response of security forces-including the use of live ammunition, tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets, and batons-is unlawful, unnecessary, and disproportionate. Excessive force should never be used against peaceful protestors.

As of 9 September 2025, the government has lifted its nationwide social media ban. This reversal doesn't undo the grave violations against those exercising their right to peaceful assembly. A curfew remains in place in at least three districts, including Kathmandu, and police reportedly opened fire again on protesters in Chandranigahapur today.

FORUM-ASIA, CIVICUS, and partners urge the Government of Nepal to immediately end the use of unlawful and excessive force against protestors, lift curfews, and withdraw the military from civilian spaces. The government should conduct a prompt, impartial, and independent investigation into all killings and injuries, ensuring accountability, justice, and reparations to victims, survivors, and their families.

"The deadly crackdown on protestors in Nepal marks a regression in the handling of protests by security forces. The government's actions have not only eroded public trust but also revealed a deeper governance failure," said Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso, Executive Director of FORUM-ASIA.

"The state resorted first to banning social media as a weapon of political control over free speech, and then deployed excessive force against its own citizens who were merely exercising their fundamental right to dissent. The government must protect, not punish, the people for demanding their rights," Bacalso continued.

Peaceful protests met with violence

On 8 September, youth-led "Gen Z" protests erupted in Kathmandu and other cities, with thousands demanding an end to corruption and the lifting of the social media ban.

In Kathmandu's New Baneshwar, police opened fire after protestors entered Parliament premises. Security forces deployed water cannons, tear gas, and even live ammunition to disperse crowds. Consequently, at least 19 protestors were killed and more than a hundred were injured, many of whom remain in critical condition with bullet wounds to the head and chest. Tear gas reportedly seeped into a hospital treating the injured, disrupting urgent medical care-underscoring the indiscriminate and disproportionate nature of the response.

The killing of unarmed protestors through the use of live ammunition is a grave violation of the right to life. Such excessive force violates Nepal's Constitution and its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to peaceful assembly.

Nepal's security forces have repeatedly used excessive force against peaceful demonstrations. As protests continue across the country in response to the killings, we remind the authorities that any use of force by law enforcement officials must comply with the principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality, in line with international standards.

Digital repression

On 4 September, the government imposed a blanket ban on social media platforms-including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Signal, and X-after companies were given a seven-day ultimatum to register locally under the 2023 social media directives. Protests soon broke out in response.

Since November 2023, the government has issued at least five notices to social media companies to register locally, appoint grievance officers, and establish compliance mechanisms. These requirements were said to be grounded in Section 79 of the Electronic Transactions Act (ETA) 2006. The Nepali civil society has argued that such directives exceed the scope of the ETA, which was not intended to license global platforms or regulate online speech, but only to regulate e-commerce and cybercrimes.

By bypassing parliamentary scrutiny, these directives "go beyond the ambit of the ETA" and lack a clear statutory basis. As such, they fall short of the ICCPR's requirement that any restrictions on rights must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate, and must be "provided by law."

The ban was not an isolated incident but part of a wider pattern. The draft Social Media Bill 2025 may impose sweeping licensing requirements, vague takedown powers, liability for local representatives, and up to five years' imprisonment for undefined "false" or "anti-national" content. Such provisions violate international standards of legal certainty. They could institutionalize censorship, criminalize dissent, silence journalism, and weaponize laws for political control.

"Nepal is following a regional authoritarian playbook-India's IT Rules, Pakistan's repeated shutdowns of X and YouTube, and Bangladesh's crackdown on students in 2024 all reveal the same pattern. When governments shut down civic space-whether digital or physical-people will resist. And when states respond with bullets, it only deepens the very crisis of legitimacy it seeks to contain," said Reylynne Dela Paz, Advocacy and Campaigns Lead at CIVICUS.

Call to action

1. We call on the government of Nepal to respect the people's right to protest and freedom of peaceful assembly, and to immediately halt all forms of violation and brutality by authorities against protesters.
2. The government should ensure that the rollback of the social media ban is permanent. It must withdraw or substantially amend the draft Social Media Bill 2025 and related directives to align with international human rights law and standards.
3. As a state party to ICCPR, Nepal must uphold its international obligations. To protect civic space, the government must respect the fundamental rights of its people-both online and offline.

Signatories

• Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)

• CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

• Advocacy Forum, Nepal

• Informal Sector Service Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (INSEC), Nepal

• Jagriti Child and Youth Concern Nepal (JCYCN), Nepal

• Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC), Nepal

• Media Action Nepal

• Women's Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC), Nepal

• International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

• World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders