Even after the formation of the commissions they have not been able to perform as per expectations and discharge their duties

The country witnessed many hideous crimes during the decade-long Maoist conflict, and hence innumerable cases of human rights violation, including those of grave nature. Most of the victims have yet to be provided with justice. The insurgency ended in 2006 and it took about eight years just to form the two commissions, namely the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappeared Persons. Even after the formation of the commissions they have not been able to perform as per expectations and discharge their duties. This has caused an inordinate delay in providing transitional justice. This has been attributed to various factors such as the failure of the government to share the information, lack of manpower, budget and other logistics and also the absence of a separate law on TRC and necessary regulations, as well as lack of cooperation from the actors in the conflict.

It is alleged that the ruling parties have not been providing the needed information to the commissions to facilitate their tasks as the parties concerned fear that complaints would be filed against their leaders and cadres as well as against the security officials who were involved in rights violations. This non-cooperation has affected the work of the commissions severely. That something is seriously wrong while compiling the requisite information can be inferred from the fact that the number of victims having their statements recorded has gone down to 16,000 from the previous 17,000. No wonder the United Nations is skeptical about the information made available and also the capability of Nepal to deal with the cases of rights violations. This may well lead to a situation when the UN would be compelled with other “foreign intervention” to institute a tribunal to look into the conflict-era violations of human rights.

The members of the commissions have submitted their interim reports to the Prime Minister one year after their formation. So far, the commissions have visited 52 districts which were mostly affected by the conflict and talked to genuine victims. What the victims desire most is justice. The commissions are mooting setting up offices in the badly affected districts in order to receive complaints. For this, there should be regulations guiding the TRC and CIEDP with technical and logistics support from the government. As such, cooperation is sought from all quarters to speed up the probing process so that the guilty are made to pay for their gross violations of various human rights. This would indeed be a major tragedy if those guilty of human rights violations, particularly of serious nature, avoided punishment through the legal loopholes. The government, parties in the conflict - the then rebel Maoists and the security forces - must understand the fact that the international community will not remain silent if Nepal fails to manage on its own transitional justice acceptable to the rights victims and according to international standards. The lack of interest on the part of the sides to the conflict in making the two commissions successful in their tasks is exemplified by the fact that it is a decade after the decade-long Maoist conflict ended, and the work of the two commissions is yet to take off.

Zero poaching

The Chitwan National Park has marked the Zero Poaching Year 2015 as no single rhino was killed by poachers throughout the year. Chitwan National Park is famous for a rare one-horned rhino which is killed for its horn. Besides the Chitwan National Park, the Bardiya National Park and India’s Kajiranga National Park are the main habitats of the one-horned rhinos. According to the figure provided by the national park Nepal boasts of having as many as 645 rhinos in the two national parks.

It all became possible due to constant vigils of the security personnel, park authorities and cooperation from the local communities in the buffer zones. Similar zero poaching years were also observed in 2011 and 2013 while one rhino was killed each in the year 2012 and 2014. Zero poaching of the rhinos could become possible because of the stern action taken against the poachers by the concerned authorities. Such a campaign has added one more feather on the cap of the park authorities and the local people. This initiative will help promote tourism. The local communities will also reap benefit from such a successful initiative.