At a time when the plight of conflict victims is being ignored due to the prolonged transitional justice process in the country, Change Action Nepal (CAN) organised an interaction with journalists and urged them to keep on raising the issues of victims.

CAN is a women-led organisation that has been working for the promotion and protection of human rights, and the dignity of women and children of marginalised and vulnerable groups.

Participants of the interaction said people have been forgetting the painful stories of the conflict victims as the process of transitional justice continued to prolong even after almost two decades.

“We need well-informed journalists to sensitise the people [about the issue] because those from the new generation have no knowledge of the conflict,” said Babita Basnet, a senior journalist. “Now people are gradually forgetting the woes of conflict victims, especially the harrowing tales of women and children.”

In his paper entitled ‘Role of media for the access to justice for conflict victim women,’ Ram Tiwari said that the media should continue reporting on the stories of women victimised during the conflict and the efforts of the local units to compensate them.

Tiwari said the role of the media is crucial to make both the parties of the conflict accountable to protect the women affected due to sexual and gender violence and serious human rights violations. He highlighted the increasing pain and suffering of the survivors as the transitional justice process has continued for a very long time.

Raju Chapagain, an advocate who is an expert of transitional justice, Manchala Jha, former commissioner of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and senior journalist Babita Basnet commented on the working paper presented by Tiwari during the interaction chaired by Maiya Nepali, chairperson of CAN.