The teams in the two transitional justice commissions appointed on May 14 should already have been conducting full-fledged probes into thousands of complaints lodged with them. With only four years since their appointment to complete their work, both commissions face severe time constraints.

However, seven months after their appointment, they are still unsure when they can begin reviewing cases. Ignoring concerns from a section of conflict victims and human rights activists, the federal parliament in August last year amended the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, clearing the way for appointments in the two commissions, which had been vacant for over two years.

In May, the erstwhile KP Sharma Oli-led government, on the recommendation of a panel headed by former chief justice Om Prakash Mishra, appointed five office bearers each to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of the Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP).

“We planned to be in the respective districts for investigations starting this month [from mid-November], but it did not materialise,” Tika Dhakal, a member of the TRC, told the Post. Officials at both commissions blame the lack of regulations and the staff shortage for their inability to start investigations.

The revised Act requires new regulations that the Cabinet must endorse for implementation. According to the commissions, they had prepared and forwarded draft regulations to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs in August, before the Gen Z protest. Both commissions need separate regulations to start detailed investigations, they claim.

“We are well prepared to begin detailed investigations as soon as the regulations are endorsed and the government deputes the needed staff,” said Shreejana Pokhrel, a member and spokesperson for the disappearance commission (CIEDP). After finalising the regulations, the law ministry has sent them to the finance ministry for clearance, and is preparing to table them in the Cabinet soon. Likewise, organisation and management (O&M) surveys that estimate the number of staff required in both commissions are being presented to the finance ministry. The finance ministry’s approval is necessary before any law that creates a financial burden on the state can be endorsed.

The TRC’s survey, finalised by the Nepal Administrative Staff College, envisages increasing its staff at the central office from the existing 89 to 124, and adding 240 positions in districts to commence investigations. The commission plans to mobilise 60 teams, each comprising four experienced investigators, to various districts for detailed investigations. Each group will have an under secretary, two section officers, and a non-gazetted first-class staffer. The disappearance commission also plans to add around two dozen staff to its already approved workforce.

Dhakal said that while the TRC awaits approval of the regulations and deputation of necessary staff, it has completed most internal preparations to start detailed investigations. It has already developed standard operating procedures for truth-seeking and hearings, to keep complaints on hold, and to carry out memorialisation work in the name of victims.

“We now expect to commence detailed probes from January, but with parliamentary elections scheduled for March, we are not quite sure whether it will go as planned,” said Dhakal. Even if investigations begin in January, the commissions will have approximately three years to investigate tens of thousands of complaints. The TRC has 78,909 complaints to investigate. As many as 15,191 new complaints were added after the new team assumed responsibility. Likewise, the disappearance commission received 68 new cases. It has around 2,500 cases pending.

Conflict victims say they knew these commissions were not capable of effectively probing their complaints. “It was clear that those appointed on political connections could do nothing to deliver justice to the victims,” said Suman Adhikari, founding chair of the Conflict Victims Common Platform. “Neither these commissions nor the government are serious about the victims' plight.”

The transitional justice commissions were formed in February 2015 with a two-year mandate to investigate the (1996-2006) insurgency-era cases of atrocities. However, 10 years later, and after three sets of office bearers, there has been no progress in delivering justice to the commissions other than registering complaints.