International human rights groups have slammed Nepal for failing to prosecute wartime rights abusers, saying the government did not show seriousness to deliver justice to the victims.
The one-year extensions of Nepal's two transitional justice mechanisms without necessary legal and institutional reforms ordered by the Supreme Court and the UN are insufficient to comply with international standards, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, and Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement.
Nepal established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) in 2015 -- nearly a decade after the end of the conflict -- to investigate into abuses by both sides during the decade long armed conflict.
But they have been widely criticised as "toothless" and there have been only two convictions, one for the brutal killing of a teenage girl by Nepal Army personnel and another for the killing of a journalist by Maoist rebels.
The government recently extended the mandates of the commissions for another year, but has not passed the legislation needed to give them legal powers to prosecute war crimes.
"Families and victims of Nepal's decade-long civil war have waited far too long for answers, and cynical government attempts such as extending the mandate without broader reform was a further slap in the face," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, issuing a statement.
More than 17,000 people were killed, 1,300 disappeared and thousands displaced during the civil war, which ended in 2006 with a peace deal between Maoist insurgents and government forces.
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