Incident Reports

Attorney General starts talks to expedite justice process

2018-03-08

Nepal

Newly appointed Attorney General Agni Kharel has started consultation with the stakeholders to deliver justice to the victims through Transitional Justice system. Kharel had consultation with the Conflict Victims Common Platform (CVCP), an alliance of 13 organisations representing the victims of the decade-long Maoist insurgency that ended in 2006, to have their views on what should be done to expedite the investigation process. He also had talks with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to inquire on the reasons behind the delay in the investigation. During the talks he suggested amending the Act of TRC and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) as per Supreme Court verdict should be the first priority. “I am consulting different stakeholders now,” said Kharel. “Accomplishing the task of Transitional Justice will be top priority during my present tenure.” The victims groups and the two Transitional Justice bodies have blamed the lack of appropriate law to be the main reason behind the sluggish process in providing justice and reparation. In January 2015, the Supreme Court directed the government to amend a dozen provisions of the Act that were inconsistent with ‘international laws and Transitional Justice norms’. It had asked to define the difference between ‘serious crime’ and ‘crime of serious nature’, removing statute limitation on the reporting of incidents of sexual assaults, as well as statute of limitation for the registration of cases against perpetrators found guilty by the commissions. Though its already three years since two transitional bodies were formed, they have not been able to complete investigate into a single case war era crimes. Formed on February 9, 2015 the TRC has hardly completed preliminary investigation into 827 among 60,298 cases filed to it while CIEDP which received 3,093 complaints have shortlisted some 2,300 “genuine cases” for investigation.

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