A/HRC/10/53 page 4 5. OHCHR Nepal has been collaborating closely with the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) since its establishment in January 2007 pursuant to Security Council resolution 1740 (2007). As an active member of the United Nations Country Team, OHCHR Nepal also cooperates closely with United Nations agencies in Nepal, in particular with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the implementation of Security Council resolution 1612 (2005) on children and armed conflict, and with the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Development Fund for Women on gender issues, including on implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000). Cooperation between OHCHR Nepal and the United Nations Development Programme has focused in particular on strengthening the National Human Rights Commission, while cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO) related to its Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries of 1989. 6. In its capacity as lead agency of the protection cluster of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, OHCHR Nepal monitored protection concerns linked to the floods that affected large parts of the country in the Eastern and Far Western regions in August and September 2008. OHCHR Nepal facilitated a coordinated response with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Programme, UNICEF and international and national relief agencies in support of the Government’s assistance to the flood-affected population. 7. OHCHR Nepal facilitated the visit to Nepal in November 2008, at the invitation of the Government, of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people. Assistance was also provided to UNMIN and UNICEF during the visit of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, in December 2008. III. HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE PEACE PROCESS IN NEPAL 8. There have been remarkable developments in Nepal since 2006. Emerging from a decade-long conflict in which some 13,000 people died, an estimated 1,500 disappeared and thousands were displaced, Nepal has grasped the opportunity to renounce armed conflict and move towards peace and democracy, based on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of November 2006 that committed all parties to respect human rights. The election of a Constituent Assembly that also functions as a legislature-parliament and is broadly representative of the people of Nepal constitutes an important advance. At its first session on 28 May 2008, the Assembly voted to end the 239-year-old monarchy of Nepal and to establish a Republic. In August a new Government, led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), or CPN(M), was formed. The Government has made important commitments to respect human rights. Its programme, presented to the Constituent Assembly in September and reflected in its first budget, broadly takes into account the progressive fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights. 9. In his statement to the General Assembly on 26 September 2008, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” stated that, as a democracy, Nepal is fully committed to