Just justice

In a letter to Prime Minister Oli, the New-York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the government to take steps to address key transitional justice issues in Nepal.

“Twelve years after the conflict ended, victims of Nepal’s decade-long civil war are still waiting for justice, answers, and meaningful reparations,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. “The prime minister should seize the opportunity to set a regional example in post-conflict justice.”

Nepal has recently extended the tenures of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP), but these transitional justice bodies have been hampered by inadequate laws that do not meet international standards, and have a severe lack of capacity and proper support from the government and the international community.

Attorney General Agni Kharel has pledged to amend the law governing the TRC and bring it into conformity with orders from the Supreme Court in response to a case filed by Suman Adhikari, the son of Muktinath Adhikari who was  executed by Maoists in Lamjung in 2002.

The SC has ruled that blanket amnesty cannot be granted to perpetrators of gross human rights violations, extra judicial killing, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other sexual offences.

“Nepal’s civil war ended in 2006, but the victims continue to pin their hopes on a justice process through the transitional justice mechanisms,” Adams said.

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