Credible TJ Process

Ensuring the transitional justice to the victims of Nepal's decade-long armed conflict has been a tricky yet crucial component of the peace process. Thousands of people that included Maoist combatants, security personnel and innocent persons lost their lives and many more got wounded in the bellicose movement. It left many families torn apart. Over 3,223 people disappeared in the conflicts and their whereabouts are still unknown.  The very memory of the disappeared pinch the hearts of their relatives. This is a deep psychological trauma the victims can hardly overcome in their life. However, providing justice to the victims became a difficult task because of the involvement of an arrays of factors and actors in it. 

The Maoist insurgency ended without any warring party claiming an absolute win. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in 2006 when there was seemingly a deadlock in the ‘war’ between the Maoist rebels and the state. So the subsequent accord requires taking all sides into confidence. It should be a win-win deal that heals the wounds of war. Besides, differing political stances also came into play to complicate the matter and delay in concluding the process. Respecting the international laws and human rights obligations is equally important for global acceptance and credibility of the transitional justice (TJ). This may be the reason why it took 18 years for the major parties to clinch an agreement on it.

After much humming and haw, a three-party taskforce recently settled contentious issues with regard to the transitional justice. The accord, reached by the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, and main opposition CPN-Maoist Centre, will pave the way for amending the Bill on the Disappeared Persons’ Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, 2071, which has been pending in the parliament since March 2023. During the insurgency, the crimes such as murder, rape and sexual violence were committed from the both sides. So justice, reconciliation, reparation and compensation have been important factors to establish durable peace in the post-conflict society and heal the wounds of the victims.

In the recent deal, the negotiators have forged a consensus on defining grave human rights violations and reduce the sentence term of the alleged perpetrators.  It has identified intentional or arbitrary killings as grave rights violations. Similarly, the cases of rape also fall in the category of grave rights violation and there will not be any reconciliation on them. A perpetrator of rape is bound to serve the prison term. The panel has agreed to reduce sentence to the guilty by 75 per cent, an issue that has raised the eyebrows of the rights activists. Similarly, discharged Maoist combatants and the families of security personnel who were killed or injured in the armed conflict will be compensated by the state. The victims who are not ready to reconcile with the offenders will approach the regular courts for the justice. 

Victims, fed up with procrastinated transitional justice process, have hesitatingly accepted this provision thinking that anything is better than nothing. There still lies a lengthy process ahead. The victims have to write to the Office of the Attorney General that file the cases at the would-be Special Court on their behalf. The government prosecutors will examine whether the given cases merit for lodging at the court. The victims can knock the door of the Supreme Court if the Attorney General declined their petitions and Special Court's verdicts go against their expectations. Now it is imperative to make the TJ process and mechanisms victims-friendly and credible so that they are not again left high and dry.