CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS GETS UNDERWAY Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: A two-day national convention of human rights defenders has commenced in Lalitpur from today [Monday], RSS reports. Inaugurating the convention, Chairman of the organizing committee Kedarnath Upadhyay expressed his concerns over increasing incidents of human rights violations in the country. The convention is expected to discuss promotion, protection and respect of human rights, accountability of the State, effective role of human rights defenders, accountability and transparency of their role. The convention is also expected to endorse guidelines related to human rights activists prepared by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Of around 35,000 non government organizations across the country, some 5,000 are estimated to be working for human rights. nnnn