Kathmandu, Nepal, August 29, 2022: Protesting the bill to amend the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry (EDE) and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC), a group of conflict victims and human rights defenders have written a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres seeking his intervention for the revision of the bill.
In the letter sent to UN Chief Guterres through UN Resident Coordinator Office in Kathmandu on Monday, 20 victims and human rights activists have alerted of “multiple flaws” in the transitional justice amendment bill tabled by the Nepal government in Parliament.
They have urged him to use his good offices to press upon the government and political parties to ensure necessary amendments of provisions and soughed to press upon the government and political parties represented in Parliament to ensure necessary amendment of provisions that undermine victims' right to effective remedies and open the door to impunity for those involved in gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law.
“The transitional justice bill tabled in the Parliament does not follow the directives of the Supreme Court of Nepal and violates international principles and practice on transitional justice. “Issues related to differentiations made between ‘murder’ and ‘cruelly conducted murder’, coercion on victims for amnesty, provisions for reduced sentencing and absences of due process are some of the flaws mentioned. The absence of the issue of child soldiers in the bill, even though it has been so well recognized by the United Nations in the context of Nepal, is also mentioned as a grievous flaw. All in all, “the amendment bill is designed to provide de facto immunity to perpetrators of both sides (Maoists and state security personnel),” reads the letter.
“Nepali society is capable of developing a just, humane and realistic transitional justice process, one that will be exemplary at the international level. This is also why we hope that the United Nations will remain engaged on the matter,” reads the letter further.
The letter is undersigned by Dr. Gauri Sankhar Lal Das (former Commissioner of National Human Rights Commission, Nepal), Sushil Pyakurel (Former Commissioner of National Human Rights Commission, Nepal), Kul Chandra Gautam (Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations).
Similarly, Mahamunishwar Acharya (Human Rights Organization, Nepal), Indra Aryal (Justice for Human Rights), Min Bahadur Shahi (Human Rights Alliance), Nani Maya Thapa (NGO Federation of Nepal), Suman Adhikari (Conflict Victim Orphan Society Nepal) and Maina Karki (Conflict Victims’ Common Platform), Shova BC (Army Single Women and Injured Families Group), Uma KC (Conflict Victims’ Society for Justice), Ekmaya Bishwokarma( Amar Prahari Pariwar), Gopal Bahadur Shah (Conflict Victims’ National Alliance), Kadak Bahadur Ramtel (Discharged People Liberation Army Nepal), Bijaya Raj Gautam (Informal Sector Service Center), Yagya Raj Thapa (Democratic Freedom and Human Rights Institute), Om Prakash Sen Thakuri (Advocacy Forum, Nepal), Dr Netra Timilsina (South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication), Bhawani Prasad Kharel (HURFON) and senior journalist Kanak Mani Dixit are also among those signing in the letter.
