KATHMANDU, Aug 30: Various human rights organizations have urged the government to launch investigations and make the status of enforced disappeared persons during the ten-year long armed conflict public.

Issuing a joint statement on the occasion of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the organizations asserted that the enforced disappearance is a serious violation of human rights both the disappeared ones and their relatives.

Stating that the United Nations has defined the enforced disappearance as a continuous crime, a severe breach of human rights and attack on human dignity, they voiced for fair justice to the conflict victims and demanded stringent punishment to the guilty at the earliest.

They suggested the concerned Nepali stakeholders focus on strengthening the rule of law, ending impunity, and guaranteeing accountability to establish sustainable peace and fulfill the state’s responsibility to human rights, the press release reads.

Signing on the Comprehensive Peace Accord back in 2006, November 21, both parties namely Government of Nepal and then CPN Maoist had vowed to launch a probe and make the status of thousands of missing ones public within 60 days of the accord. Since then, thirteen years have passed; the commitments made by the relevant parties have turned futile.

Various organizations including Accountability Watch Committee (AWC), Advocacy Forum and Amnesty International Nepal, in their statement, voiced for immediate implementation of orders by the courts at different times. Similarly, they also demanded judicial proceedings based on various international practices of the same type.

International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances is observed every year on August 30 since 2011 after UN General Assembly approved the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. 

On the occasion of the day, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has delivered a message. "I call on States to do more to prevent enforced disappearances and bring to justice those responsible. To this end, I call on countries to cooperate fully with UN mechanisms. I also urge all States that have not yet done so to sign, ratify or accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance," the UNSG stated in his message.

 
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