To put forth suggestions to CA, govt soon

Kathmandu, December 4:

The National Human Rights Commission is making preparations to recommend the government to amend the Person Disappearance (Crime and Punishment) Bill.

The constitutional rights body today said it would submit its recommendations to the government and the Constituent Assembly soon.

The NHRC is planning to request the government and the Constituent Assembly to form an independent commission to investigate and prosecute the culprits.

The government is preparing to introduce the bill in the Constituent Assembly soon.

The constitutional rights body also said the commission should be made powerful so that it could recommend whether or not to prosecute the culprits and the Office of the Attorney General should implement only the same.

It is also planning to suggest to the government to deal with crime of disappearance as crime against humanity and forbid the withd-rawal of such cases once they are under the jurisdiction of a court of law.

“The bill has been proposed to look into the cases related to decade-long insurgency. But since the Act will exist for a long time, we are recommending the government to form a permanent mechanism so as to deal with similar cases in the future too,” NHRC commissioner Gauri Pradhan said.

The constitutional rights body today collected suggestions from several sectors and said there was a need to increase the punishment for different offences, as the bill has proposed imprisonment up to five years in murder cases.

“The bill has proposed to form a commission with the majority of the government representatives. But we want to see equal representation of government, parliament, judiciary and civil society in the commission,” Pradhan added.