Expressing their views on the deeply entrenched culture of impunity in Nepal, key stakeholders of the Criminal Justice System in Nepal has pointed out "a glaring lack of political will" as the prime deterrent in the formation of the proposed Transitional Justice Mechanisms in Nepal.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance has formally entered into force from today (23 December 2010). The Convention is a legally-binding instrument protecting people and establishing the right of everyone not to be subjected to enforced disappearance.

Advocacy Forum (AF) and New York-based rights agency Human Rights Watch (HRW) have jointly released a report on the unfettered culture of impunity in Nepal and have reiterated their calls for the government to investigate and prosecute those responsible for crimes committed during the conflict. The report has also documented three emblematic cases since the conflict ended to show how the same neglect of justice applies to new crimes.

On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day 2010, Nepalese human rights community has urged the Government and political leaders of Nepal to honour the important commitments made to address human rights abuses committed during the country’s ten-year conflict (1996-2006), including in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 21 November 2006.

The trend of families of victims bringing their cases before the police and demanding criminal investigation is on a steady rise. Since the publication of “Waiting for Justice: Unpunished Crimes from Nepal’s Armed Conflict” (2008), which examined 49 complaints that families filed with police concerning allegations of gross human rights violations, AF has helped victim families file thirty two new FIRs, formal complaints, in 51 individual cases.

Advocacy Forum released a report highlighting the problems faced by the victims in accessing “interim relief” at the district level and point to the need to bring about changes. The report looks into the provisions in the different directives, guidelines and standards that the government has devised in relation to the distribution of such relief and juxtapose them with the problems faced by the victims.

Advocacy Forum submitted two separate review reports to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (UNWGEID) with regard to the implementation made by them during their respective missions back in 2005 and 2004 respectively.

In her address at Global Open Forum in UN Security Council Forum on Resolution 1325, AF Executive Director Mandira Sharma highlighted on gender-based violence, especially sexual violence against women, perpetrated during the conflict in Nepal and the continuous marginalization of women's voice and the exigency of bringing the voices of women in transitional justice process.

2 Feb 2010.  Advocacy forum today released a comprehensive report on torture and extrajudicial executions, which are continuing unabated in the Terai, the southern belt of the country. The report documents the state response to ongoing political and criminal violence in the Terai January- September 2009.

A group of human rights defenders submitted a joint memorandum to Peace Minister Rakam Chemjong regarding some critical amendments to be made in the latest draft bill on the formation of a commission on disappearance at the latter's ministerial residence at Harihar Bhawan, Pulchowk, in the early hours of the morning on August 30, 2009. The memo-submission event was timed to coincide with the International Day of the Disappeared -2009.