President Ramchandra Paudel has authenticated the bill to amend the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act on Thursday in accordance with Article 113 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal.

Ending nearly a decade of confusion, the House of Representatives passed the Bill on August 14, followed by the validation from the National Assembly on August 22. It was forwarded to President Paudel after Speaker Devraj Ghimire certified it on Wednesday.

With the President’s authentication, the Bill is now legally validated and ready for implementation once it is published in the Gazette.

The amendment to the Act was necessitated after the Supreme Court in February 2015 struck down provisions that allowed amnesty for serious violations of human rights, directing the government to make necessary revisions. Despite this directive, successive governments until recently made no serious attempts towards changing the law as directed by the top court.

The serious visible efforts to this effect was seen when the chiefs of the major three parties on July 1 formed a three-party panel to find a common ground on the contentious provisions in the bill. With consent from the top leadership the mechanism on August 7 reached a written agreement on the bill.

Based on the three-party agreement, the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the lower house approved the bill, which was under consideration for over a year, the very next day. The erstwhile Pushpa Kamal Dahal government had in March last year introduced the bill in parliament. It was under consideration for more than a year following differences among the parties on the content until last week’s agreement.