Nepal: independence critical for justice panels

Dec 19, 2014 | News

The Nepal government should ensure more victim participation and improve transparency when selecting candidates for two independent commissions on the country’s decade-long conflict, the ICJ and other groups said today.

The ICJ, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and five local human rights and conflict-era victims groups sent an open letter to Prime Minister Sushil Koirala.

The groups, reiterating concerns about the act, said Koirala should narrow the scope of the amnesty powers vested in the commissions and bring them in line with international standards.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Enforced Disappearances are being established under a 2014 law, the Commission on Investigation of Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Act, 2071 (TRC Act).

“A consultative and transparent process for selecting commissioners is critical if the commissions are going to win the trust of conflict-era survivors as well as local and international observers,” the rights groups said in their letter. “The TRC Act is fundamentally flawed, and the government should take these steps to ensure that this important exercise in transitional justice remedies the flaws.”

Contact:

Sam Zarifi, ICJ Asia Pacific Regional Director (Bangkok), t: +66 807819002; email: sam.zarifi(a)icj.org

Nepal-TRCCommission-Advocay-Open Letter-2014-ENG (full text in PDF)