KATHMANDU, Dec 16: Amid the failure to secure consensus among the members of the recommendation committee to select the officials of the transitional justice bodies, the committee has recommended the government to start a fresh procedure for the selection of individuals for the coveted positions.
Issuing a statement on Monday evening, the committee revealed that it will only initiate the recommendation process of five officials, including the chairperson, for both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission for Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP), after it reviews the reasons behind the inability to conclude the transitional justice issue earlier and completes an objective elaboration of the reasons.
As per the statement, since the committee could not find unanimity in the recommendation of names and a majority decision on the recommendation could have long-term effect on the transitional justice mechanism, it finds it more appropriate to initiate a fresh procedure to make the recommendation process more believable and acceptable.
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A member of the committee had previously stated that they were working to reach a unanimous decision. However, the process has been complicated by the need for political consensus from the leaders of the three major parties.
Since the two-month term given to the committee by the government to select officials ends on Tuesday, the committee has requested the government to start a fresh procedure for the selection of the officials.
The two commissions have been without officials since July 2022. After interviewing 39 candidates, the committee had called for applications from various organizations and individuals. Initially, 156 people were named, and the committee selected some from that list. Following the announcement of the 39 candidates, families of conflict victims, civil society, and human rights activists urged the committee to avoid selecting individuals who would repeat past mistakes.
The committee's previous list included former administrators, judges, senior advocates, former ambassadors, and human rights activists. Among the candidates for chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were Kashiraj Dahal, Sudip Pathak and Sher Bahadur KC.
For the chairperson of both commissions, the committee was considering former High Court judges Achyut Prasad Bhandari and Dilliraj Acharya, along with other candidates like Mahesh Thapa, Bijaya Singh Sijapati, and Bishwaraj Koirala.
Victims and civil society groups had raised concerns that the recommended individuals lack sufficient knowledge of transitional justice.
Chiranjibi Bhandari, Assistant Professor of Conflict, Peace, and Development Studies at Tribhuvan University, argued that this is not only a failure of the search committee but also of the political parties and the government that recommended their names for such an important responsibility. "These individuals were deemed incompetent even during the shortlisting process, as the list they prepared was flawed and did not prioritize competency," he said.
