Kathmandu: Family members of victims of the decade-long armed conflict today demanded that the transitional justice mechanisms act effectively to ensure that victims get justice.

The Conflict Victims Common Platform, an alliance of a number of organisations representing those hit by the conflict, submitted a memorandum to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and demanded that their concerns about legal and structural reforms of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons be addressed.

The conflict victims demanded that the government formulate laws regarding criminalisation of enforced disappearance and torture and redefine violation of human rights, among other legal reforms.

Likewise, they demanded legal assurance of cooperation between two commissions as well as their cooperation with other constitutional bodies and the government, extension of the commissions’ organisation to the local level and capacity building of its staff and extension of the deadline for filing complaints.

The victims warned that the transitional justice process would fail if their suggestions were ignored.

Copies of the 21-point memorandum have been sent to the Parliament, the National Human Rights Commission, the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, the Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the TRC and the CIEDP also.