Nepal's lower house endorses bill aiming to complete transitional justice process

By Binod Prasad Adhikari
Kathmandu [Nepal], August 15 : Nepal's House of Representatives endorsed the enforced disappearances, Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (third amendment) Act 2024 on Wednesday. The recently amended bill comes after an agreement in between the major parties to list intentional and arbitrary killings as serious violations of human rights and to reduce the sentence of the guilty in serious violations of human rights by 75 per cent.
A victim who is unwilling to reconcile, can move the court against the perpetrators.
Also, all the disqualified Maoist combatants, including child soldiers, along with the families of security personnel who lost their lives or were injured during the insurgency, will get reparation and compensation.
The bill has been hailed as a legislative measure which would deliver justice to the
victims of the 1996-2006 insurgency who have had to wait for it for around two decades.
"With the endorsement of this act, we will work on formation of the commissions that are required to be formed and they would be directed by this new law. From the government side, I would like to assure that these commissions would be formed with consensus and would be effective. The government would fully endorse it and I expect the same from all the existing political parties that they will be supporting the enforced disappearances, Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Moving ahead with the conclusion of it, we will be sending message to the world that Nepal has been instrumental in solving the issues of transitional justice in short duration," Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said while addressing the parliament Wednesday.
Other lawmakers, including top leaders from the ruling CPN-UML, Nepali Congress and main opposition party, CPN (Maoist Centre), also lauded bill and expressed confidence that it would be a milestone in concluding the peace process initiated by then-CPN (Maoist) and the seven mainstream political parties on November 16, 2006.
"The tabled bill in the parliament consists all the basic recognitions of transitional justice. It emphasizes on search for truth, deliver justice, compensate victims and prevent conflict. This bill comes in line with our existing law, verdict from the Supreme Court and the International parameters," former Prime Minister and President of Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba claimed.
The bill, which aims to resolve issues relating to transitional justice, was tabled by Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya, minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs. House Speaker Devraj Ghimire put the bill for vote and subsequently announced that it was passed by voice vote.
Bimala Subedi, chairperson of the law, justice, and human rights committee of the House, presented a report on the bill before parliament on Tuesday. The committee endorsed the bill unanimously on August 8 after considering it for over a year.
A three-party panel formed to iron out the differences over the amendment to the enforced disappearances enquiry, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, submitted its report to top leaders on August 14.
After a stalemate on TRC issues for nearly two decades, three major parties-Congress, UML and Maoist Centre--had formed a task force, comprising Ramesh Lekhak from Congress, Janardan Sharma from Maoist Centre and Mahesh Bartaula from UML to iron out the differences.
On August 1, the panel reached an agreement on contentious issues, clearing the way for the federal Parliament to endorse it. Then, the panel led by Lekhak submitted the report to Prime Minister and UML chair KP Sharma Oli, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
Former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who led the decade long insurgency and came into mainstream politics signing a peace accord, has also has lauded the bill
endorsed by the parliament.
"The peace process in Nepal is ideal for the world. If the same process were adopted by countries in Europe or the Western part of the globe, then it would have carried a different meaning. Wars across the world either end with victory or loss but in the context of Nepal, it have remained unparallel. We have original experiences and haven't copied any of the countries. It basically has two aspects and have succeeded in both fronts. In the first, we have been able to abolish the monarchial parliamentary system and establish a federal democratic republic. New constitution has been promulgated by the constituent assembly, formally institutionalising political achievements. Likewise, another was the technical and the integration of military forces, which we executed with much ease in comparison to other countries," former Prime Minister and Chairman of the CPN-Maoist Centre, the former guerilla group Pushpa Kamal Dahal said.
Though the leaders have been claiming the bills to be progressive and address the
issues of transitional justice, victims of the conflict whom the law is mandated to serve has long been standing against it demanding amendments.
In addition, activists claim that the new bill also doesn't address crimes against humanity and war crimes. The former warring parties--the Maoists and the state security forces--maintain that no acts of crime against humanity and war crimes ever happened in Nepal.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on enforced disappeared persons have been paralyzed for over two years in absence of chairpersons and members. Their appointment process will commence with the Act's endorsement.
In its verdict on a writ petition jointly filed by dozens of conflict victims, the Supreme Court in February 2015 had turned down several provisions in the Act as they allowed amnesties in serious violations of human rights. Nine years after the ruling, the Act is yet to be amended despite several attempts to do so.