Nepal’s efforts to bring justice and accountability after its decade-long civil conflict froze more than two years ago with much progress, but a new development has given rise to hope that it will immediately be revived and revamped.
A long-awaited act that sets the stage for appointing a second – and finally last – square of truth commissions to conduct investigations into the more than 66, 000 issue victim cases that have been accumulating dust since the last commissions ended in July 2022 was passed by the nation’s parliament in August 2024.
The Nepalese government established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ( TRC ) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons ( CEN ) in 2015 to deal with crimes committed during Nepal’s ongoing conflict, also known as” The People’s War.”
Communist rebels launched an insurrection against the Nepali authorities in eastern Nepal in 1996, which sparked a 10-year civil war. According to United Nations projections, the issue resulted in the deaths of 13, 000, with 1, 300 individuals also missing and an unknown amount of abuse and conflict-related sexual assault victims.
The Women’s War ended with the drafting of the Comprehensive Peace Accord that, among other responsibilities, required the Nepalese government to create a high-level fact fee.
To day, the earnings have completed two sessions. The government extended its two-year mission to include the majority of the target cases three times before the first, which initially collected the sufferer cases. The second large, mandated from 2020 to 2022, was shut down for decades due to COVID-19.
The charges were tasked with three main objectives: to reveal the truth about gross human rights violations, to create an environment of peace, faith and peace, and to make legitimate recommendations for target reparations and perpetrators from the issue.
However, despite seven years of work, little progress toward any of these objectives has been made. No case investigations have been completed, no perpetrators have been held accountable, and no victim reparations have been distributed. Reconciliation in a nation that still suffers from conflict is still a distant thought.
From 2022 to 2023, I conducted research in Nepal about the country’s transitional justice process. During my research, I heard people refer to Nepal’s prolonged process as” a judicial merry-go-round”,” Groundhog Day” and” transitional injustice“.
Many Nepalis who spoke with me believe that the government intentionally extended the transitional justice system in an effort to avoid accountability. They believe that people will eventually get tired of it and forget. In addition, the commissions had experienced a significant cloud of hopelessness and frustration as a result of the first two rounds ‘ legal and political restraints and political biases, severely stifling progress and impairing the commissions ‘ functionality and local trust.
Justice was” ajourned.”
In 2022, I interviewed a conflict victim in the rolling hills of Rolpa, in the country’s west, where the conflict began. Seven years prior, she had filed a complaint with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but nothing has been said about it. ” In a way, our complaints are in adjournment”, she said. ” They have not ended, yet they are not being forwarded either”.
One of the roughly 300 women who formally reported a case of sexual violence committed during a conflict to the TRC was her.
However, a former truth commissioner claimed that some cases of sexual violence victims were treated as” torture” in order to distance themselves from the stigma and shame that are frequently associated with it in Nepal. This figure, however, could be as high as 1, 000.
I also met women’s organization leaders who have written reports of thousands of cases of conflict-related sexual abuse in Nepal, but they have n’t yet submitted these cases to the TRC due to ongoing concerns about confidentiality and trust.
Nepal’s truth commissions are lagging behind in their efforts to implement what I refer to as” transitional justice ritualism,” the practice of a state creating hollow institutions without the support of actual outcomes.
I think Nepal’s post-conflict coalition government has been using the truth commissions as a political tool to demonstrate to the international community that it is upholding its obligations under the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord and to avoid having universal jurisdiction, the international legal principle that allows other countries to prosecute individuals for serious human rights violations regardless of where the crimes took place.
Since 2013, when Colonel Kumar Lama, a former Royal Nepal Army commander, was detained in the United Kingdom on suspicion of torture and war crimes, the threat of universal jurisdiction has been a particular source of concern for alleged perpetrators in Nepal. While Lama was cleared there due to the lack of evidence, those in positions of power during the civil war continue to be at risk of having universal jurisdiction over war crimes perpetrators in Nepal.
A contested step forward
However, the recent change in Nepal’s political leadership and the passage of the new law, which amended the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, offer an opportunity for the government to move beyond transitional justice lip service.
A third round of appointed commissioners will be in place for four years under the new law. Additionally, the amended act allows for the creation of specialized subunits within the TRC.
- truth-seeking and investigations,
- reparations,
- rape and sexual assault
- victims coordination.
The subunits have the potential to speed up the flow of resources and advance some of these commissions that are still in place.
Nonetheless, hope has been tempered by apprehension and uncertainty. Some victim groups support the legislation, while others object to provisions they claim could undermine justice, particularly by preventing criminals from receiving lower sentencing.
International human rights organizations have criticized the current law’s positive and long-awaited changes, but they also issue a warning about serious accountability gaps that could impair the transitional justice system.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk called the revised law” an important step forward” and praised it as” an important step forward” while adding that it is necessary for the legislation to be interpreted and put into place in full accordance with international human rights standards.
Potential for international support
Although it appears as though Nepali-led transitional justice processes will continue, opportunities for international assistance in the form of financial or technical assistance may be opening, a significant shift in the process.
The amended act establishes a “fund” to support the investigation and victim reparations that will be supported by the Nepali government and are open to contributions from other local and international organizations.
Sushil Pyakurel, a former member of Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission, is among a group of human rights defenders, lawyers and victims establishing a civil monitoring committee to serve as a watchdog for the revived process. Pyakurel stressed the importance of Nepali civil society, alongside the international community, pressuring the government to fulfill its promises of a victim-centric implementation.
According to Pyakurel,” You can make any law you want, but the essence of the matter is how you put it into practice.” ” Although the law is different, if the mentality remains the same, then nothing will change”.
The government has a chance to show its commitment to a transparent and legitimate process by returning Nepal’s truth commissions. However, I think it must depart from the previous two commissions’ ritualistic transitional justice practices to actually offer justice and recognition to the country’s victims of the civil war.
Tracy Fehris is a PhD student in sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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