The Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) is set to start registering complaints from conflict victims beginning April 14. The CIEDP, formed to look into conflict-era cases, announced its plan of action on Friday, a day after the government formalized the commission’s regulations. This marks the start of the commission’s task formally. “Now that we have the regulations, the commission has become fully functional,” said Lokendra Mallick, chair, CIEDP. “But we still lack an Act to criminalize the act of disappearance.” Despite forming the CIEDP last year, the government so far has ignored the Supreme Court order to criminalize the act of disappearance and torture. Besides, Nepal is a signatory to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. After the government dilly-dallied to draft the bill even after a year, the commission in February drafted the bill and forwarded it to the government. The regulations, which were formalized after eight months, are also yet to be forwarded to the Cabinet for endorsement. The conflict victim organizations and the human rights community have been questioning the intention of the government, saying why such a toothless body was formed. Without the law, the CIEDP’s role will be limited to keeping records. “We cannot recommend action against those found guilty after investigation,” said Mallick. The commission plans to collect complaints through Local Peace Committees (LPCs), which were actually set up to distribute compensation and relief package in all 75 districts. Due to lack of time, the commission could not set up its own complaint-collecting centers at the local level. The commission is also for accepting complaints at the center as well as taking up any case provided by reliable secondary sources. The National Human Rights Commission, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Informal Sector Service Centre are among those organizations that have documented incidents of disappearance. The government had formed transitional justice bodies—CIEDP and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)—14 months ago to look into conflict-era cases. However, the government delayed in passing their regulations, which hampered the task of the commissions. The government is yet to amend the Transitional Justice Act in line with international practices and values as directed by the Supreme Court. Besides, the commissions are understaffed, while the government is yet to release the required budget for them. In a lack of legal framework and infrastructure, the commissions limited their activities to holding interaction with conflict victims so far. Meanwhile, the TRC has been consulting with conflict victims, rights defenders and members of civil society for setting up oversight mechanism to monitor the LPCs as they call the victims for filing their complaints.