Nepal’s Lower House Passes Bill To Resolve Decades-Old Transitional Justice Process

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 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 percent.

A victim who is unwilling to reconcile can move the court against the perpetrators. Additionally, 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 receive reparations and compensation.

The bill has been hailed as a legislative measure that would deliver justice to the victims of the 1996-2006 insurgency, who have had to wait for it for around two decades.

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“With the endorsement of this act, we will work on the formation of the commissions that are required to be formed, and they will be directed by this new law. From the government side, I would like to assure you that these commissions will be formed with consensus and will be effective. The government fully endorses it, and I expect the same from all the existing political parties that they will support the Enforced Disappearances, Enquiry, Truth, and Reconciliation Commission. Moving ahead with the conclusion of it, we will be sending a message to the world that Nepal has been instrumental in solving the issues of transitional justice in a short duration,” Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said while addressing the parliament on Wednesday.

Other lawmakers, including top leaders from the ruling CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, and the main opposition party, CPN (Maoist Centre), also lauded the 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 of all the basic recognitions of transitional justice. It emphasizes searching for truth, delivering justice, compensating victims’.

(WITH INPUTS FROM ANI)

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