The two transitional justice bodies—the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP)—started accepting formal complaints from conflict victims on April 17th. The complaints can be lodged either with the head offices of the two commissions in Kathmandu or with the peace committees that have been set up in all 75 districts for the purpose. On the first day, 125 complaints were lodged. The two commissions will continue to take in complaints for the next two months. The hope is that most conflict victims—relatives of those killed in cold blood during the insurgency, the families of those made to forcibly disappear, the victims of sexual assaults and anyone who feels their human rights were unjustly violated in the course of the Maoist war—will come forward so that their grievances can finally be addressed. This in turn is expected to help end the much-delayed peace process and give victim families a sense of closure.
But for that to happen it is important to widely disseminate information regarding the registration of complaints. Many conflict victims, frustrated with the inordinate delay in justice, have given up hope of any kind of redress. Some of them have also moved. Getting the message through to all of them won’t be easy. But even if the conflict victims come to know about the complaint collection, many won’t be assured that they will get justice, not after being made to wait, needlessly, for so long. The two transitional justice bodies were supposed to come into existence within six months of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord on November 21st, 2006; it would be nine years before they were formed in February of 2015. And from the start they have been in controversy. International human rights organizations, including the UN Commission on Human Rights, have expressed their concern at what they see as serious loopholes in the Nepali transitional justice process. They have been particularly concerned about the way the legislation for the two bodies provides ‘blanket amnesty’ to even most egregious violators of human rights and at the lack of victims’ consent for such amnesty.
The government so far has been unable to take the international community into confidence that conflict victims in Nepal will get justice. No wonder so many of these conflict victims are suspicious of the whole process. But we would still like to urge them to file formal complaints so that there is at least proper documentation of what happened to them. This is important. Even if many conflict victims are denied justice immediately, they can at least derive a little solace from the fact that the injustice done to them won’t be forgotten. We understand that this isn’t much for those who lost their loved ones or the families whose members are still missing. But the documentation will be valuable study material for the posterity so that the past mistakes that led to such widespread misery can be avoided. This is why it is important for the government to continue convincing people to come forward with their stories over the next two months.
Related story
Nepali woman's 10th Everest climb breaks her own record
