Democracy and Political Prisoners in Bhutan

Abstract

The uprising of 1990 in Bhutan was a wakeup call for Bhutanese monarchy to reform. The response remains the blackest period in the country’s history. Women were raped; political leaders, students, human right activists and other common people were tortured and jailed. Many succumbed to torture; no one has the definite data of how many. Ethnic cleansing took place resulting in the eviction of more than one-sixth of the country’s population. Largest per capita refugees were produced. Movement for dignified repatriation has failed miserably but the resettlement of those Bhutanese refugees in developed countries was declared a great success. The King announced in 2005 that the country will have a ‘democratic’ government. He handed over his authority to his son to govern. The king and the country received massive appreciation for initiating democracy. By nature, the democracy should primarily benefit those who demanded it. Instead, Bhutan is the only democracy in the world where pro-democracy activists are still serving jail sentences. International community remain mute spectator to the sugar-coated Bhutanese democracy. Royal Government of Bhutan fooled them by taking advantage of their interest on geopolitics. This paper entails the story of dissidents behind the bars, their families and response from the international community – including governments, human rights groups and the United Nations. Additionally, this paper highlights the implementation of fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution of Bhutan and to see if such fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution are real or not.