A/HRC/13/73 agreement was renewed in 2007 for a further two years and in July 2009, following an interim three-month extension issued to allow the then newly-formed Cabinet to discuss a longer-term extension, the agreement was renewed until June 2010. In addition, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006 itself mandates OHCHR to monitor the human rights provisions of the agreement. 13. OHCHR-Nepal has maintained a continuous field presence since it was established in May 2005. Given its long-standing and extensive presence in regions outside of the capital, the networks it has developed with authorities, civil society and the general public, the knowledge of the country it has acquired, and the capacity of its monitoring teams to rapidly deploy to the districts, the office continues to fulfil a significant role at this stage of the peace process, including with regard to minimizing potential violence among political actors. 14. In light of earlier positive developments in the post-conflict context, OHCHR-Nepal made the decision to reduce and rationalize its operations and to concentrate on strengthening partnerships and the capacity of national institutions and civil society to better support a sustainable peace process. At the same time, OHCHR monitoring teams continue to be active across the country. B. Preventive role 15. One key impact of OHCHR’s work in Nepal has been to help expand the space in which local actors — victims as well as human rights defenders — can safely raise human rights issues and concerns without fear of repercussions. The close contact that OHCHR maintains with local human rights defenders in all regions, combined with its ability to deploy quickly human rights monitors to the field, has on multiple occasions enabled OHCHR to help defuse local tensions before they could escalate into serious incidents. 16. In addition to its regular field visits, the Office has responded to requests from Government officials to deploy human rights monitors to particular districts during times of local crisis. For example, district and regional officials requested OHCHR to send monitoring teams to Ramechhap district in May and June 2009 to help ease tensions between UCPN-M and the Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) party, which followed the resignation of the UCPN-M Prime Minister. In June 2009 an OHCHR team travelled to Kalikot district in the mid-western region in a joint mission with the UNMIN Political Affairs Office following several incidents between UCPN-M and cadres from the UML party and the Nepali Congress (NC) party which erupted into major clashes on 7, 14 and 15 June. In October 2009 the Chief District Officer of Bhojpur district requested OHCHR to visit the district to verify the facts regarding a recent clash between UCPN-M and other political parties and to help ease tensions between political actors. OHCHR field teams responded recently to tensions and violent incidents during confrontations between the youth wings of UCPN-M and UML in Dhankuta and Taplejung districts. 17. As human rights concerns relating to the security situation in the Tarai increased in the post-conflict context, particularly in relation to protests by marginalized communities, OHCHR has intervened in a significant number of cases relating to detention, abduction, and torture, and continues to follow-up on numerous alleged extra-judicial killings by the police. The monitoring conducted by OHCHR reveals the continuing need for reform in the security sector; OHCHR has provided concrete recommendations to the authorities on this issue on a number of occasions. 18. OHCHR has continued to monitor political protests and rallies throughout the country, engaging with security forces and protest organizers to ensure that both sides are clear about their respective rights and responsibilities during demonstrations. OHCHR, 5