The government has expedited the drafting of regulations and other legal frameworks to ensure the two transitional justice mechanisms can start working immediately after they get their office bearers.

A team from the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs backed by representatives from the major parties has been working on them even before the bill to amend the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act was endorsed by the federal parliament. “The regulations drafting process commenced right after a political agreement on the amendment bill, even before the federal parliament endorsed it,” an official privy to the development told the Post. Radheshyam Adhikari from the Nepali Congress, Agni Kharel from the CPN-UML, Khim Lal Devkota from the CPN (Maoist Centre), and others are assisting the drafting process.

The bill that passed the House of Representatives on August 14 was endorsed unanimously by the National Assembly on August 22. President Ramchandra Paudel authenticated it on Thursday.

An official involved in the drafting process said the directives and other working procedures are more complex than the regulations. The directives and working procedures will outline how the different units within the commissions will function, set the criteria for appointing experts, and manage the “fund.”

The amended Act envisions constituting several units within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—a truth-seeking and investigation unit, a reparation unit, sexual violence and rape investigation units, and a victims coordination unit. Besides the provincial offices, according to the new law, there will be district offices in areas with higher numbers of cases.

Similarly, it also envisions setting up a separate “fund” where all levels of government will inject money while national and international organisations and even individuals can contribute. A seven-member team led by the law minister will be responsible for managing the funds, which will be used to finance the investigation process, relief and reparations. The federal government has already allocated Rs1 billion for the fund. Some Western countries have also pledged contributions.

The team is also working on a legal framework for selecting members to manage the fund. “The organisation and management survey is ongoing alongside drafting the legal frameworks. Similarly, estimation of the expenditure to conclude the entire process is also ongoing,” a senior official at the ministry told the Post. “This time, the government wants to have everything in place by the time the two commissions get their office bearers.”

In 2015, it took a year for the TRC and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) to establish their legal frameworks. Another few months were spent on getting the working procedures in place. As a result, the two commissions took more than a year just to start collecting complaints from the victims of the 1996-2006 insurgency. If the claims of government officials and the political representatives involved in the regulation drafting process are anything to go by, the government does not want a repeat of the 2015 episode.

The two commissions have four years to accomplish their task, and its countdown will begin the day they get their office bearers.

The government has already constituted a five-member panel led by former Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra to recommend candidates for chairpersons and members in the TRC and the CIEDP. The panel has two months to pick a chairperson and four members for each commission, starting the day the bill was authenticated.

The Mishra committee will collect names of the aspirants for the positions. It will then publish a shortlist for public feedback. After considering the public input and evaluating the candidates, the committee will present a final list of 10 office bearers to the government.

Victims, human rights defenders, and the international community have been saying that the progress of the transitional justice process will also largely depend on the quality of those appointed to the two commissions. They have urged the government to make the appointment process consultative and transparent. Earlier, the government was criticised for prioritising political cadres over experts in the appointments.

“We expect the two commissions will get their chairpersons and the members by Dashain [October],” said the ministry official.

The TRC and the CIEDP have remained paralysed in the absence of office bearers since mid-July 2022.

The headline of the story has been changed for clarity.