ICJ has called on Nepal to provide real accountability and redress to victims, despite the country´s current constitutional crisis.[break]
In its report on the commissions of inquiry in Nepal, ICJ has concluded that commissions have primarily been created to serve political ends without successfully accounting for serious crimes and human rights violations.
The report entitled Commissions of Inquiry in Nepal: Denying Remedies, Entrenching Impunity has reviewed 38 inquiry commissions established between 1990 and 2010.
“The past 20 years have seen a series of toothless commissions of inquiry appointed in Nepal. Even where commissions have conducted proper investigations, their recommendations have rarely been implemented or their reports made public,” said Sam Zarifi, ICJ´s Asia director. “Instead of providing justice to victims and survivors, the commissions have effectively shielded perpetrators.”
Zarifi added that the current political uncertainty should not hinder the functioning of the criminal justice system as it has no bearing on the state´s duty to redress human rights abuses, particularly those amounting to crimes under domestic and international law.
Mandira Sharma, president of Advocacy Forum, stated that the government must avoid relying on the establishment of commissions of inquiry to investigate human rights violations when investigation, prosecution, punishment of the guilty and provision of reparation should be assured through the criminal justice system.
“Too many inquiry commissions have been used to divert cases of human rights abuses from the criminal justice system to politically appointed bodies that do not have a formal role in the criminal process,” Sharma said. “On the rare occasion when establishment of a commission of inquiry is truly warranted, its appointment and functioning should conform to international standards of independence, effectiveness and transparency.”
The ICJ report examined some of the most prominent inquiry commissions established during the last decade, including the Mallik and Rayamajhi commissions, commissions formed to investigate violence in the Tarai between 2006 and 2007, the Supreme Court-appointed commission to investigate cases of enforced disappearances, and many others.
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