After receiving a letter dated March 20 from the TRC, the NHRC has consulted with former NHRC chairpersons and commissioners on Wednesday and with victims, rights activists and civil society representatives on Thursday.Some of the victims, who participated in the consultations, said that the TRC has yet to create a trust-worthy environment and that the NHRC should not hand over all the documents related to their cases to the TRC until a trust-worthy environment is created.
"The victims were found more concerned about the protection of witnesses and evidences while some victims bluntly said that they have yet to trust the transitional justice mechanism," said NHRC commissioner Prakash Wasti.
During the consultations, some rights activists raised serious questions over the language of the TRC letter sent to the NHRC. The activists questioned how a commission established in line with an Act could order a constitutional commission to provide documents.
On the other hand, some activist suggested to the NHRC to provide documents of conflict-era cases only after holding a discussion with the TRC and ensuring a trust-worthy environment.
According to an activist present at the discussion, some of the victims and rights activists raised serious questions over the ongoing infightings within the TRC and expressed doubts that the evidences and witnesses will be safe in TRC hands.
"Some of the activists raised questions about the possible duplication in the investigations as the NHRC have already recommended action against some perpetrators, completed investigations in significant number of cases and some are yet to be investigated," said Wasti.
Meanwhile, some of the activists suggested to the NHRC to play the role of a guardian to the transitional justice mechanism and provide support to the TRC to settle the conflict-era cases.
The TRC on March 20 had written to the Office of the Attorney General, the NHRC, the District Administration Office and the District Police Offices to forward pending cases from the conflict era to it.
"We have almost completed consultation with our constituencies regarding the letter from the TRC and the commission will take necessary decision soon," said Commissioner Wasti.
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