State of impunity

A joint report published by the New York-based Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum, a Nepali NGO working in the area of Human Rights, paints a bleak picture of the prosecution of past human rights violations. The report (titled Still Waiting for Justice) says no member of the security forces or the Maoist army has been held to account in a civilian court for grave human rights abuses committed during the armed conflict of 1996-2006 and most cases that have been filed remain stalled. The report also says that, despite official commitments to end impunity and intensive litigation and campaigning by the families of those killed or disappeared during the conflict, no one has been arrested, let alone brought to justice in a civilian court for the 62 crimes that these two reputed human rights I/NGOs documented in their earlier report published in 2008. Instead, many family members of the victims are either withdrawing their cases --understandably under pressure or false assurances -- or are showing growing apathy since they have lost hope that justice will be done.



The report has also pointed, rightly, to the lack of progress in changing the legal framework that impedes criminal investigation of past crimes. None of the laws, such as the State Cases Act, Army Act, Police Act, Evidence Act, Commission of Inquiry Act, Public Security Act and the Muluki Ain (Nepal´s civil code), that are seen as impediments to effective criminal investigation of past human rights abuses, has been amended. Nor have successive governments put needed effort into forming a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Disappearance Commission as promised in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Though the then Maoist-led government introduced a Disappearance Bill through ordinance it did not meet international standards and it was never tabled in parliament, thereby leaving it to expire in due course.



Bringing human rights violators to book and ending the state of impunity remains one of the major challenges of the peace process also because it features less and less prominently in the priority lists of political parties. The security forces-- the army and the police-- are taking the cue from their political bosses and pursuing past cases of rights violation just for the sake of formality. Military tribunals have either acquitted army personnel of criminal charges or handed out mild punishments that only add insult to injury for the families of victims. The police, who are supposed to act on FIRs, lack enthusiasm in investigating cases. Let´s not forget that our future is intricately linked to our past, and unless we address past cases of violation judiciously and put an end to impunity, we cannot aspire to a just and peaceful future. We therefore urge the government, political parties and the security agencies to take the issue of impunity with all the seriousness it deserves under an accountable, democratic system.

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