Over a year and a half after amendments to the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has finalised the regulations necessary to implement the law.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission on the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP), reconstituted in May last year, following amendments to the Act, are waiting for the regulations to expedite investigations into insurgency-era cases of human rights violations.

“The regulations for the disappearance commission will be forwarded to the Cabinet on Friday for endorsement. The one related to the truth commission will be submitted next week,” Man Bahadur Aryal, joint secretary at the ministry, told the Post.

The Sushila Karki government is moving ahead with equipping both commissions with the needed legal instruments, even as a section of victims from the 1996-2006 Maoist insurgency and human rights advocates are demanding fresh appointments of office bearers in the two transitional justice mechanisms. They have been insisting that the interim government stall the entire transitional justice process until both commissions have new leadership.

During a consultation event organised by law minister Anil Kumar Sinha in mid-January to seek feedback on the regulations, the disgruntled victims and activists staged protests and resorted to sloganeering to voice their concerns. They accused the Karki government of taking an autocratic path by ignoring their concerns, claiming that it was bulldozing the process instead of earning the trust of conflict-affected communities.

“We believed the interim civilian government, formed on the foundation of an unprecedented movement, would listen to our legitimate concerns and make concrete efforts to resolve them. However, this government is acting as if no problem exists,” said Gopal Shah, chairperson of the Conflict Victims Common Platform. “The prime minister and her ministers have been ignoring us, even refusing to meet.”

In May 2025, amid reservations from victims, the then KP Sharma Oli government appointed five-member teams to both commissions. Since then, dissenting groups have repeatedly demanded the reappointment of officials, saying they have no trust in the incumbents.

Officials at the ministry say the incumbent government does not want to stall the process. “The government is committed to facilitating the commissions. Moving ahead with the endorsement of regulations is a clear indication of this effect,” said a senior official at the ministry.

Preparations for the regulations have been ongoing for months. According to the commissions, they forwarded draft regulations to the ministry in August, a month before the Gen Z uprising, along with feedback. The two commissions need separate regulations to start detailed investigations.

“We are desperately waiting for the regulations. Full-fledged investigations can proceed after the elections if they are endorsed before the vote,” Achyut Bhandari, spokesperson at the truth commission, told the Post.

Both commissions cite the lack of regulations as one of the major reasons for the delay in launching investigation into the complaints they have received.

The victims, across the nation, lodged 15,191 new complaints at the TRC after it was reconstituted in May, taking the total to 78,909. It already had 63,718 cases pending. Likewise, the disappearance commission has received 68 new cases. It has around 2,500 cases pending.

After finalising the regulations, the law ministry is also working to give a final shape to the organisation and management (O&M) surveys that estimate the number of staff required in both commissions, to be presented to the finance ministry, said Aryal.

The TRC’s survey, finalised by the Nepal Administrative Staff College, proposes increasing its staff at the central office from the existing 89 to 124, and adding 240 positions in districts for the investigations.

The commission plans to deploy 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 approved workforce.

Office bearers at both commissions say they are not in a position to further delay investigations. The revised Act has given four years to both commissions to complete their work. As around a year has passed just in receiving new complaints, they effectively have little more than three years to accomplish their job.

Officials say they have completed most internal preparations to start detailed investigations. They have already developed standard operating procedures for truth-seeking and hearings, to keep complaints on hold, and to carry out memorialisation work on behalf of victims.