Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission Anup Raj Sharma has drawn the attention of the government towards its apathy to implement the recommendations of the constitutional human rights watchdog.

Ever since its establishment in 2000, the commission has recommended necessary actions in 1,186 cases of the human rights violations, but only 11 percent of those recommendations were fully implemented and 39 percent were partially implemented. There has been no progress whatsoever in the implementation of 50 percent of the recommendations.
“It is saddening that the government is not following its constitutional and legal obligations to implement the commission’s recommendation while impunity continues to prevail,” Sharma said in a statement issued on Tuesday on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the commission.

He also raised concerns over the delay in addressing the concerns relating to the transitional justice process.

Thirteen years after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord, thousands of victims of the decade-long Maoist insurgency are still waiting for justice. Despite the rulings from the Supreme Court in 2015 to revise the existing transitional justice Act, the government is yet to finalise the amendment bill.

Sharma also pointed out the delay in the amendment of the commission’s Act to address many of its concerns.

“The government has taken no concrete steps to amend the commission’s Act though it has been four years since it had handed over a draft incorporating the issues that need to be amended,” reads the statement.
Sharma said instead of addressing the commission’s concerns, the government has time and again tried to undermine its autonomy.

Ignoring the commission’s suggestion, the incumbent government in April last year had registered a bill to amend the National Human Rights Commission Act-2012, with provisions that makes it mandatory for the commission to recommend cases against human rights violators—individuals or institutions—to the attorney general.

The bill also proposes removing Sub-clause 2 of Clause 27 of the Act, which would bar the commission from opening regional, sub-regional and contact offices in different parts of the country. Clause 17 (3) of the new bill proposes that the attorney general can request the commission for further investigation or collection of more evidence, if necessary, before deciding to register the case.

Sharma also expressed his dissatisfaction over the delay in the reconstruction of the building of the commission that was damaged in the earthquakes of 2015. 

The commission has been operating from a temporary office in Harihar Bhawan, Pulchowk, for the last five years.