Authorities in Nepal are preventing police and prosecutors from pursuing conflict-era cases of human rights violations, undermining the rule of law and efforts for security sector reforms, Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum said in a report released today.

During the 10-year armed conflict between government forces and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) that ended in 2006, thousands of people were forcibly disappeared, tortured, raped, or killed. The 53-page report — No Law, No Justice, No State for Victims: The Culture of Impunity in Post-Conflict Nepal — tracks 62 cases of extrajudicial killings that Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum first documented in 2008. The groups found that over a decade later there has been little progress towards prosecutions, despite court orders requiring investigations to proceed, with the police and prosecutors saying that the government has told them these cases will be handled by transitional justice mechanisms.

“The Government of Nepal has maintained a robust commitment to impunity, protecting alleged abusers at the expense of victims’ rights and undermining the rule of law,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/failure-to-prosecute-perpetrators-promoting-fresh-abuses-warn-rights-groups/