The Asian Human Rights Commission welcomes the 21 April introduction of the Truth and Commission Bill for consideration at the Legislature-Parliament in a long-awaited move to develop strong and effective transitional justice mechanisms. The introduction of the Bill comes after a five-year long wait for families of conflict victims who have seen the possibility of obtaining legal redress continuously delayed, in spite of the promises of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
To date, not a single case of rights violations committed by either side of the conflict has been brought to court nor the perpetrators prosecuted; not a single victim has received justice, a concern which was reiterated by the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Kang, during her April visit to Nepal. The nomination of a minister of Information and Communication against whom a murder case has been registered following a Supreme Court order for his alleged involvement in the disappearance and murder of a school teacher, Arjun Lama, during the conflict makes that concern even more vivid. It echoes the need for immediate developments of transitional justice mechanisms. The adoption of this Bill should introduce accountability for conflict-related human rights violations and put an end to this impunity by bringing the perpetrators to book and protecting the right to truth, reparations and redress of the victims. The AHRC acknowledges that at the moment, the text of the Bill contains much-needed provisions prohibiting amnesty for those accused of extra judicial killings of unarmed civilians, torture, rape, disappearance and abduction.
The AHRC wishes however to express its concern toward the temptation to adopt amendments targeting those major dispositions of the Bill which would contribute to deprive the commission of its ability to put an end to impunity. Among the amendments introduced at the Parliament at the time of writing, of particular concern are those targeting article 29 which allows for the filing of criminal cases against those alleged of having committed human rights violations. The AHRC reasserts that suppressing the clauses allowing the prosecutions of human rights violations would denature the purpose and rationale of the TRC and would be a failure of the State to fulfil its international obligations to hold accountable all violations of human rights and humanitarian laws.
The state of Nepal should firmly stand in favour of the aspirations for justice and accountability of its people and recall that in a democratic state there is no space for impunity, where fundamental rights have been violated. In that regard, justice and reconciliation are not two antagonistic terms, but two faces of the same coin. Bringing human rights violators to book is not only necessary to the appeasement of the Nepalese society, but also to the much-needed rebuilding of trust between the State and its citizens.
In light of the national and international obligations of the State of Nepal to investigate and prosecute all cases of violations of human rights and humanitarian law, the AHRC urges the members of the Legislature-Parliament to consider adopting the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission Bill without any more delay, to put an end to a five-year long denial of justice.
