The House of Representatives endorsed the bill to amend the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Third Amendment) Act, on Wednesday.

After deliberations on the bill tabled by Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya, minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, Speaker Devraj Ghimire put the bill for the vote and subsequently announced that it was passed by voice vote.

Bimala Subedi, chairperson of the law, justice, and human rights committee of the House, presented a report on the bill before the parliament on Tuesday. The committee endorsed the bill unanimously on August 8 after considering it for over a year.

Lawmakers including top leaders from the ruling CPN-UML, Nepali Congress and main opposition party CPN (Maoist Centre), while addressing the lower house meeting on Wednesday, lauded the bill and expressed confidence that it would be a milestone in concluding the peace process initiated by then CPN (Maoist) and the seven mainstream political parties on November 16, 2006.

The three-party panel formed to iron out the differences over the amendment to the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act submitted its report to top leaders on August 14.

After a stalemate on the TRC issues for nearly two decades, three major parties–Congress, UML and Maoist Centre–had formed a task force, comprising Ramesh Lekhak from Congress, Janardan Sharma from Maoist Centre and Mahesh Bartaula from UML, to iron out the differences.

On August 1, the panel reached an agreement on contentious issues, clearing the way for the federal Parliament to endorse it. Then, the panel led by Lekhak submitted the report to Prime Minister and UML chair KP Sharma Oli, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.