Accountability Watch Committee
Kathmandu, Nepal
Press Statement
Thursday Jan 31, 2008
Our attention has been drawn towards the recent reports in media that a meeting of the high-level political task force under the coordination of Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction held on January 28 made a decision, and recommended the government to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Commission on Disappearances via two separate ordinances.
In this context, AWC wants to reiterate its long-held stance that such commissions, which wield tremendous effects on the current peace-process in general and entire legal system of Nepal in particular, must be formed after wider consultations with the major stake holders and respecting the international norms and standards.
After mulling over the bill tabled by the government to amend the civil code (Muluki Yen) introducing the section on disappearance, the parliamentary committee had directed the government to retract the bill, draft a new one imbibing the spirits of the Supreme Court’s verdict and accordingly table the new bill in the Legislature-Parliament. We want to remind all that the Apex Court, while passing verdict on a string of cases filed by the family members and kin of those summarily arrested and made disappeared, had directed the government to establish an all-powerful commission dedicated to: finding out the whereabouts of those disappeared during the decade-long armed conflict, setting legal frameworks for such commission so that the practice of making people disappeared can be categorized as an inculpable crime, curbing impunity by prosecuting the people responsible for such a crime, and providing immediate relief, reparations and medical attention to the victims. The Supreme Court has also ordered that such commission and the legal frame works need to be established considering Nepal’s international obligation.
We further want to direct the attention of all to the fact that almost all of the national and international human rights organizations, kith and kin of victims, donor agencies and diplomatic agencies have been persistently requesting the government to initiate the credible process of constituting the commission through the introduction of separate laws and with a due observance of the Apex Court’s verdict of June 1, 2007. We, therefore, strongly demand that the commission in question should be established with an objective of putting an end to impunity by bringing the responsible to justice and to initiate impartial investigations and providing reparations to the victims than just to achieve immediate political interests of any particular political party.
At this backdrop, the ‘circumnavigating route’ taken by the government whereby it has made an unwholesome attempt to introduce legal frameworks in question via ordinances in the name of political accord just after the termination of parliamentary sessions reeks of an overt conspiracy aimed at exonerating the perpetrators of gross human rights violations during the armed conflict. It will be indeed unbecomingly unfortunate decision on the part of the seven political parties to make an endeavor to enforce laws on such serious issues via ordinances when they themselves had led a movement against the royal regime in the recent past dubbing the latter’s similar attempt as in diametric opposition to democratic norms and values.
It is due to the sheer growth of an autocratic mindset in the political parties, precipitated by their complacently pseudo-discernment that whatever accord they reach will automatically be legitimate, that a crisis has shrouded the rule of law in the country and has, in turn, put a blight over the proposed constituent assembly polls as well as dream of a new Nepal as envisaged by the Nepalese commoners. Any political accord must be founded on national and international human rights laws. Therefore, we request all to initiate steps towards drafting laws and establishing a commission related to disappearance by adopting both national and international standards. Such a process can be duly forwarded by starting discussions and consultations on the bill drafted by the Ministry of Home Affairs amongst family members of the victim, civil society, human rights activists and international human rights organizations. Strangely enough, the bill on disappearances is still a “dossiere secret’. Under such circumstances, we want to draw the serious attention of the government towards the blatant fact that a practice as introducing such an important legal framework via ordinances will prove catastrophic for the country.
(Signature)
Mandira Sharma
(Signature)
Sushil Pyakurel
Accountability Watch Committee
E-mail: nepalaccountability@gmail.com
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