2 April 2012. Possibility to form the much-awaited Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) and Disappearance Commission (DC) has heightened as the top leaders of three major political parties- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN (UML) – agreed on Saturday to entrust Ministry of Law and Justice with the responsibility to finalize the draft TRC and DC Bills.
As per the suggestion of the three-member task force, the three-party meeting agreed to allow the Ministry of Peace and Reconciliation (MoPR) to bring the bills before the Parliament for enactment.
Under the new draft, the TRC will be assigned a responsibility to discover the truth and work on reconciliation, reparations, pardons and recommend for punitive action on grave human rights violation and abuses. Furthermore, the commission will decide whether or not any given perpetrator can be granted amnesty, taking into consideration the consent of the victim.
Notwithstanding their commitments to forming the two commissions two years ago, the major political parties had remained sharply polarized over some crucial provisions such as categorization of the crimes committed during the decade-long insurgency and the jurisdiction of the commissions. The draft TRC and DC bills are under consideration before the Parliament.
Both the commissions are important components of the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA).
