Kathmandu, February 12

The Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons has decided to open a new complaint registration window.

The CIEDP said the new window will be open from February 13 to March 14. The move following requests from conflict victims who failed to file their complaints previously due to various reasons.

The victims can also register their complaints at the CIEDP office in Pulchowk, Lalitpur, and at the Local Peace Committees based in 75 districts.

“As our term has now been extended, we decided to open the new complaint registration window as we are still receiving complaints from victims. Obviously, we want to accommodate all those as well as accept fresh ones from those who failed to lodge complaints previously,” said CIEDP Spokesperson Bishnu Pathak.

The new one-year mandate of the two transitional justice bodies — the CIEDP and Truth and Reconciliation Commission — started on Saturday after the government last week approved their request to extend their tenure by one year. The terms of the two bodies were set to expire on February 10.

The CIEDP has also requested the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, the line ministry, to extend the tenure of LPCs officials that expired around one-and-a-half years ago. But the government had kept their offices intact given the fact that the LPCs coordinate the works of the TRC and the CIEDP at the district level.

Each LPC has an officer (secretary), a non-gazetted first-class officer and an office assistant. Previously, the government had extended the tenure of the officials thrice — six months each — and their extended term expired around a month ago. These LPCs are based in 75 of the 77 districts, as they were set up before the formation of two new districts — Nawalpur and Rukum East.

“We requested the ministry to extend the tenure of LPC officials as we need them to accept complaints as well as coordinate our work at the district level,” said Pathak.