Kathmandu, July 9
A group of human rights activists has demanded that the government appoint new officials at two commissions formed to deal with decade-long armed conflict only after an amendment to the concerned law.
Accountability Watch Committee says the appointments at Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons should be made after the government act the TRC Act to address concerns of conflict victims and their families.
The twin bodies are vacant since the retirement of incumbents around three months ago. The government has formed a committee under the leadership for former chief justice Om Prakash Mishra to recommend new names to replace them.
“AWC would like to remind the government that the commissions cannot be effective and will face the same fate as in the past, if they are formed without the amendment of the relevant laws in accordance with the decisions of the Supreme Court of Nepal and the suggestions from international community,” the group’s coordinator Charan Prasai states, “Commissions formed without wider consultations following a transparent process and putting necessary legal framework in place are not effective, trustworthy, victim-friendly and credible. They undermine the rule of law and will further entrench
impunity already rampant in Nepal.”
The statement, however, does not explicitly mention which provisions of the law should be amended.
