Sharing and Amplifying Her Allegorical Stories: SAHAS for Justice

26.10.2022 Press and information team of the Delegation to NEPAL

“Will I ever get justice?” is a question that has haunted women survivors of Nepal's Armed Conflict since 2006. One of the major challenges that women survivors have faced is the stigma that surrounds sexual violence in Nepal – the secrecy, the shame that is put on survivors, and sociocultural views on womanhood – which has silenced many women. SAHAS for Justice focuses on the experiences of women survivors through storytelling and narrative documentation so that their stories do not get lost in political and legal debates. It hopes to make women survivor’s stories visible by sharing their experiences and encouraging others to do the same.

EU Ambassador, H.E. Nona Deprez observing the project activites of 'SAHAS' project

Till date, of the 64,000 cases filed at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons since their inception, not one has received justice. How many do you think were filed by women? How many were cases of sexual violence? We have no definitive way of knowing since the TRC does not disaggregate data by gender and cases filed to the State did not even have a category for sexual violence. These are examples of the ways that the government has continued to silence women in their fight for justice.

The Sharing and Amplifying Her Allegorical Stories: SAHAS for Justice project takes a stand against this precedent and amplifies the voices of sexual violence survivors through a narrative, women-centred approach. Not only do they document these experiences in various media forms, but they also train survivors in advocacy to empower them to demand their needs for reconciliation. In the long-term, the project seeks to use these narrative accounts to inform formal truth-seeking for the transitional justice process in Nepal.

In addition to fostering survivors to survivor approach i.e. the Justice Reporter collecting stories of the survivors, the project has provided some immediate and small support to the needy survivors. The support and the database of the survivors has been instrumental to sensitise, collaborate with and doing advocacy with the stakeholders for addressing the needs and justice of the survivors.

SAHAS for Justice also works with media to improve the sensitivity of their reporting of gender-based violence in Nepal. These trainings are also given to women survivors to build their skills in documentation and journalism so that they can conduct interviews with other survivors in their communities. By increasing the number of Justice Reporters, trauma and gender-informed reporters, it will contribute to a cultural shift in writing and documenting stories of sexual violence and will help in breaking the silence of survivors.