Agreement reached on transitional justice bill

KATHMANDU: An agreement has been reached on the transitional justice-related bill today.

The agreement was forged in the meeting of the taskforce held at the Ministry of Home Affairs in Singha Durbar on the topics of the transitional justice bill remaining to be ironed out.

“An achievement has been made today. All things remaining to be sorted out amongst us are now all settled,” Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak said, emerging from the meeting.

According to him, agreement has been reached after prolonged discussions on four topics of the bill. He said the murder that took place during the conflict period has been defined as ‘taking place intentionally or in an arbitrary manner’, and agreement has been reached on the topic that consent of the victim would be required for a letter of reconciliation and amnesty.

“If there is no consent from the victim, then a criminal case on violation of human rights can proceed ahead in which the State will prosecute it. In the case of duniyabadi phaujdari mudda (criminal case to be filed by an individual), it is agreed to give the authority to the victim as per his/her wish. Case will be registered in case of serious violation of human rights,” Home Minister Lekhak said. He added that it has been agreed to provide reparation to the family of the security personnel involved in the conflict who is killed or has been injured, at a par with the victim.

The members of the task force – Home Minister Lekhak, Chief Whip of the CPN (UML) parliamentary party Mahesh Bartaula and Maoist Centre’s deputy general-secretary Janardan Sharma – were in continuous discussions on thrashing out an agreement on the bill.

Home Minister Lekhak said that an agreement has been made on a provision for reparation to the discharged combatants who fought from the side of the then Maoist, defining them as conflict-affected.

“The Secretary at the Ministry of Law will prepare a draft of the agreement. Then we will submit it to the leaders (Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’),” he said, adding that the agreement reached at the task force level will be forwarded to the related parliamentary committee and finally passed by the Parliament since the transitional justice is the common national issue.

The bill related to transitional justice is currently under the consideration of the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the Federal Parliament.

A three-member task force comprised of Lekhak, Bartaula and Sharma was formed to sort out the topics of disagreement on the bill.

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Ajaya Kumar Chaurasiya and president of the Federal Parliament’s Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee, Bimala Subedi, Attorney General Keshav Badal, former Law Minister Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan and Nepal Army’s Major General Jeevan Prasad Dahal, among other officials had been participating in the latest meetings of the task force.