Nepal's Supreme Court has rejected a demand by ultra-leftists to grant an amnesty to people who committed serious human rights abuses during the country's decade-long civil war.
"Cases involving grave human rights violations can't be the subject for amnesty and where amnesty should be granted the participation and consent of the victims should be made mandatory," a Supreme Court official said yesterday.
The apex court has asked the Nepal government to make sure that such abusers are not given amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which will investigate crimes committed during the conflict period from 1996 to 2006, when the Maoists joined the peace process.
Human rights activists and victims' family members feared that the government's plan for the reconciliation commission could mean pardons for serious human rights abusers.
Over 16,000 people including many civilians were killed and thousands were injured during the Maoist insurgencies aimed at toppling monarchy and multi-party democracy in the country.
There were over 1,000 cases of "disappearances" during the civil war while hundreds of thousands had been displaced.
During the tenure of Maoist-led government last year, efforts were made to provide blanket amnesty to the war-time criminals, which sparked criticism both in Nepal and abroad.
A coalition government led by senior Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai prepared a legal framework to set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as per the agreement that ended the war.
The government had announced the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Disappearance Commission through an ordinance as the Parliament did not exist with the dissolution of the first Constituent Assembly in November 2012.
However, the Supreme Court verdict said the panel could not offer amnesty in the case of serious human rights violations.
Rights workers accused both the security forces and the rebels of abuses such as killings, rape, torture and disappearances during the conflict period.
"This is a landmark judgement done by the Supreme Court of Nepal. The Supreme Court has rightly pointed out that the serious crimes is not subject to amnesty," constitutional expert Dinesh Tripathi said.
"The Supreme Court has ordered that the regulation need to be re-written as per the provision of the international law. The court found that the ordinance is defective and does not comply with Nepalese obligation to international law," he said.
