PRESS STATEMENT

Advocacy Forum-Nepal (AF) is concerned about the deteriorating health condition of IIh, a youth activist, who has been staging an indefinite hunger strike ‘Satyagraha’ for the last 13 days. The second phase of the hunger strike started on 18 July 2020 as a part of the "Enough is Enough" campaign (an independent collective movement, initiated and joined by hundreds of Nepali youths around the country demanding broader accountability and transparency in the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic). This second phase hunger strike is a call to the government to adhere to its previous commitments and to address 15-point demands (such as an expansion of PCR testing criteria, optimum use of existing resources, contact tracing, the rectification of quarantine strategy, risk information, timely results, dignity, security and relief, transparency and accountability and so forth) for better COVID-19 response measures. To date, more than 150 youths have participated in a relay hunger strike.