When Nepal’s transitional justice law was finally <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/transitory-justice">adopted by Parliament on 14 August</a>, it was immediately welcomed by politicians across party lines and the international community. But in a joint statement Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have said it has ‘serious flaws … and implementation is key’.
The United States, European Union, British and the United Nations in Kathmandu wasted no time last week to hail the cross-party agreement. What surprised many was that even the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu, which usually does not comment on human rights issues, welcomed the law.
Amnesty and HRW do admit that the law ‘incorporates positive provisions’ on accountability and justice to redress <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/13-february">war crimes and human rights violations </a>committed during the Maoist conflict between 1996-2006, but say ‘serious accountability gaps’ still need to be addressed so it is in compliance with Nepali and international law.
“Transitional justice in Nepal is long overdue, and the new law can be an opportunity to finally deliver justice for victims, strengthen the rule of law, and create a positive precedent for the region,” said Meenakshi Ganguly of the New York-based HRW. “This should not turn into yet another exercise in which victims are encouraged to accept compensation without truth and justice.”
In 2015, Nepal’s Supreme Court found a previous attempt to pass the bill as unconstitutional because of blanket amnesty for heinous war crimes in violation of Nepal’s international human rights obligations. The two groups say that while the new law improves on the previous draft, parts of it still protect perpetrators of war crimes.
“Victims have been waiting for full acknowledgement of the harms they have suffered and reparations for almost 20 years. For a transitional justice process to accomplish its aims, all of the five essential pillars of this process – truth, justice, reparation, memorialisation, and guarantees of non-recurrence – must be pursued,” said Mandira Sharma, legal adviser at the International Commission of Jurists. “Current gaps in this law could serve to threaten the outcome of the process and defeat the purpose of providing effective remedies to victims.”
The main criticism is the ‘vagueness’ of the law that leaves much to interpretation of the mandates of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons. The two commissions have in the past been stymied by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal">political interference and lack of commitment to justice </a>for survivors.&nbsp;
‘The appointments of highly qualified and independent commissioners, and of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission secretary, will be especially important early decisions,’ the joint statement says, hinting that because the same political parties are in power the lack of political will could be a problem again.
Transitional justice is a major outstanding commitment of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed 18 years ago which ended the decade-long armed conflict between the then royal government and Maoist rebels in which 17,000 people were killed and nearly 1,400 are still listed as missing.&nbsp;
“In the past, the commissions have failed to win trust from victims due to repeated political interference in the appointment of the commissioners,” said Smriti Singh of Amnesty International. “The commissioners must be trusted by victims’ groups for their work to be effective and credible. This requires victims’ rights and views to be at the center of a fully transparent nomination and appointment procedure. Commissioners must be competent, impartial, and fully independent from any political party.”
The new law (Amend the Disappeared Persons’ Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, 2014) was tabled in Parliament in March 2023, and finally passed in the last week with the support of the former warring sides: the Maoists, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML. The NC and the UML are now in government, and the Maoists are once more an opposition party.&nbsp;
The statement says there has been little formal consultation with civil society and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/delay-dilute-deny">victims or their families</a>, many of whom have concerns that the law as presently drafted might not deliver justice, calling for reform of the bill.
Under the current bill, crimes committed during the conflict are either classified as ‘violations of human rights’ or ‘serious violations of human rights’. While human rights violations could be granted amnesty, the serious violations like rape, inhuman torture, enforced disappearances or arbitrary killing can be prosecuted in a special court. These definitions are not considered consistent with international law and exclude other serious crimes like torture which cannot be graded.
The special court can also pardon perpetrators of ‘not serious’ human rights if they fulfill certain conditions (disclosing the truth, expressing remorse or paying compensation) and with the consent of the victims.
The statement says that the language of the law is imprecise, and amnesty for serious crimes is contrary to Nepali and international law.
The law could also exclude many cases from criminal trial and reparations. ‘These provisions create a large accountability gap for many crimes under international law, including possible crimes against humanity and war crimes, contrary to Nepal’s Constitution and its international legal obligations,’ the statement adds.
Another provision wojld allow Nepal’s attorney general to request a 75 percent reduction in the sentencing for those convicted of serious violations, excluding rape. Amnesty and HRW call this a ‘disguised amnesty'; and say it contradicts the principle that criminal sanctions must be proportionate to the gravity of the crime, and also undermines the fundamental role and competency of the judiciary.&nbsp;

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Rights groups call Nepal’s peace bill a ‘flawed step forward’

Nineteen years after the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/13-february">end of the Maoist conflict</a>, the former enemies have finally come together to push through the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/disappearance-of-justice">Enforced Disappearances</a> Inquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act of 2014.&nbsp;
This is the culmination of a two-decade long peace process that finally allowed the Maoists and the leaders they were trying to overthrow to agree on truth, justice and reparations for war crimes their forces were both involved in. Yet, there are still some contentious provisions in the bill and serious doubts persist about its honest implementation.
That Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) and Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress stood side by side to receive the report of a special committee last week was hugely symbolic — not just because till 2006 they were trying to kill each other, but also because they have both been prime minister multiple times since then. And time is supposed to heal.
The UML was less of a target during the conflict, and it fell upon Prime Minister K P Oli to steer this consensus. On Wednesday in Parliament, he hailed Nepal’s peace process as “a model of transitional justice for the world”. We don't know about that yet.
Western liberal democracies and the United Nations that had in the past been pushing Nepal hard on transitional justice with prosecution for war crimes <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">have also been more muted about it</a>. US Ambassador to Nepal, the EU Ambassador and the UN Resident Coordinator all posted on social media welcoming the bill despite the inadequacies cited by victims’ groups.
Civil society activists are not convinced the bill will fully address truth and justice issues. They find the definition and classification of wartime excesses still vague and designed deliberately to reduce punishment and prosecution.&nbsp;
‘Any amendment to institutionalise impunity in the name of party consensus is unacceptable,’ said the Accountability Watch Committee in a statement earlier this week. Some conflict victims have also said the bill interferes with the right of the court to define, classify and determine serious violations of human rights.
The bill was relatively easy to push through because the Maoist party is considerably weaker, and is now in the opposition. And once the three leaders of the Maoists, NC and UML agreed, they got victims’ groups affiliated to their parties to sign up. Even though some victims feel the punishment for war crimes is watered down, after 18 years they want to move on.&nbsp;
Last year, former Minister for Law and Constitutional <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal">Affairs Govinda Bandi (Govindaprasad Sharma Koirala) in the Maoist government tried to fast-track this bill</a> with provisions that made a distinction between ‘political murder’ and ‘wartime killing’, and even classified torture into ‘humane’ and ‘inhumane’. It also did not give the right for appeal on a special court verdict.
Bandi’s bill was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-tj-bill-protects-perpetrators-shortchanges-survivors">met with a public outcry</a>, and a cross-party working group was set up to come up with a new draft defining serious violations of human rights, unresolved cases of reparations, and compensation for security personnel who died or were disabled.
The final bill now defines coercive or serious sexual violence, deliberate or arbitrary killings of unarmed people, acts of disappearance and inhuman or cruel torture as ‘violations of human rights’. Families of those killed, those who were injured or became disabled by landmines or war-era explosives are also eligible for compensation.
But the most egregious provision is still the one to reduce punishment ‘by 25%’ as per prevailing law for serious human rights violations except rape and serious sexual violence. How 25% is going to be applied is arbitrary. Proponents of the bill argue that transitional justice should not be viewed from the perspective of criminal justice alone because the crimes were committed during an armed conflict.&nbsp;
More than 60,000 complaints have been filed with the Commission for the Investigation of the Disappeared and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. There is a provision for the Commissions to call for renewed complaints for a period of three months.
Prime Minister Oli wants to form the commission by September before he goes to New York to speak at the UN General Assembly next month. The term of office of the chair and members of the commission will be four years which means the transitional justice process should be complete by September 2028.&nbsp;
But that is easier said than done. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/truth-about-truth-commission,3565">Both commissions have underperformed spectacularly in the past</a> because of lack of political will to face war crimes. There is no guarantee that the next commissioners will be more independent. Their persona and party loyalties will have a significant impact regardless of how good the law is.
So far, Nepal has spent Rs21 billion on reparations for families of the estimated 17,000 people killed or disappeared, and payouts to tens of thousands injured. The ghosts of those who died will continue to haunt the peace process until there is full truth and justice for war crimes.
Santa Gaha Magar

Nepal's transitory justice

The new left-led coalition in Kathmandu could pave the way for progress on finally addressing conflict atrocities, but first the government’s proposed bill in Parliament needs some important changes to ensure justice for victims. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has held several meetings with opposition leader K P Oli of the UML over the past few months because he knew that the bill could not be passed without UML support. Dahal was under pressure from the international community, including from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres during his visit to Nepal in October to conclude the transitional justice process. On Tuesday, <a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/nepal">Human Rights Watch (HRW)</a> and the group Advocacy Forum-Nepal released a report that said although the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/nepal">Nepal</a> government’s proposed bill on transitional justice contains positive provisions, but needs ‘significant amendments’. ‘It is widely recognised that a lack of accountability for conflict-era violations has led to a crisis of impunity in Nepal, with police and politicians rarely held accountable for rights violations and corruption,’ the two organisations said in a statement.&nbsp; But they added that the current moment presents the opportunity to amend the draft so that the demands of victims and survivors of the 1996-2006 conflict are met. More than 17,000 Nepalis, mostly civilians, were killed and some 3,288 are still listed as missing. HRW said that the work of rights activists had ensured built public pressure to improve the draft bill, but it still allowed those responsible for serious war crimes and crimes against humanity to not be answerable.&nbsp; The HRW Advocacy Forum report, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/node/387537">Breaking Barriers to Justice: Nepal’s Long Struggle for Accountability, Truth and Reparations</a> analyses the proposed law and reviews some cases where there were obstructions to justice by the Nepali state, which is made up of the former enemies in the conflict.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240306110324_81106a42b6e16cc935bacb7d2315487adc45b250b4b032276a0819db1918818c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240306110324_81106a42b6e16cc935bacb7d2315487adc45b250b4b032276a0819db1918818c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="TJ Bill"> </figure>  Survivors of war rape and relatives of victims filed complaints in 62 extrajudicial killings, and the organisations say that the draft does not meet international legal standards, rulings by Nepal’s &nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/01/nepal-supreme-courts-decision-reaffirms-need-amend-transitional-justice-law">Supreme Court</a> and demands of victims’ families. “To deliver a durable and rights-respecting process without further delay, Nepal’s leaders should agree to amendments called for by victims and recommended by legal experts, then ask parliament to pass the bill into law,” said <a href="https://www.hrw.org/about/people/meenakshi-ganguly">Meenakshi Ganguly</a>, HRW’s deputy Asia director. "This is a moment of opportunity to deliver the truth, justice, and reparations long sought by victims and help protect the rights of all Nepalis in the future." The conflict ended 18 years ago with the signing of the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement under which mandated setting up a <a href="http://www.trc.gov.np/">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> (TRC) and a Commission on the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP). During Secretary-General Guterres’ visit Prime Minister Dahal from the Maoist Centre party promised ‘speedy advancement’ of the peace process. The current bill provides for reparations and interim relief for some victims, including victims of torture and rape, who were left out of earlier relief packages. It guarantees the right of the families of victims of enforced disappearance to their relatives’ property.&nbsp; The TRC and (CIEDP) would investigate war crimes and those classified as ‘serious violations of human rights’ could be referred to and prosecuted in a special court. This includes rape, enforced disappearance, and cruel or inhuman torture, and a yet to be finalised definition of unlawful killing.&nbsp; However, HRW says the bill excludes numerous serious crimes under international law, including some acts of torture and other unlawful killings. It says excluding certain categories of crime risks providing general amnesty to perpetrators, as well as deprive some victims and their families from reparations.&nbsp; “If the transitional justice bill is passed without appropriate amendments, it risks hindering the search for justice,” said Bikash Basnet of Advocacy Forum. “If it is appropriately amended, it can be the basis for a meaningful, nationally-owned process that upholds the rights of victims and benefits all Nepalis by strengthening institutions and the rule of law.” Click here for full report, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/node/387537">Struggle for Accountability, Truth and Reparations</a>

Nepal’s chance on transitional justice

UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressed a joint session of Parliament on Tuesday as part of his four-day visit to Nepal. Guterres spoke about global conflicts, Nepal’s transitional justice process, and the impact of climate change on the Himalayas. During his remarks, Guterres described Nepal as “a promoter of peace, a champion of multilateralism, and a staunch supporter of sustainable development and climate action.” Guterres said he welcomed efforts to drive progress and find solutions in regard to transitional justice, and that the UN, “respecting Nepali leadership” stood ready to support Nepal. “We know that transitional justice has the greatest chance of success when it is inclusive, comprehensive, and has victims at its heart--when it centres on truth, reparations and justice,” he said. “When women participate fully. And when all victims of human rights violations can find meaningful redress.” Meanwhile, victims of Nepal’s decade-long armed conflict were gathered in front of Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday to demand amendments to the Transitional Justice Bill. Conflict victims' groups appealed to the government and political parties to ensure that the transitional justice process adheres to international standards, the Supreme Court’s verdict, as well as the concerns expressed by survivors.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231031161024_7130d4b3f64d24ceb93ff0d2ad2076f4dba7d7a0d52446cad4c48de5c70d6499.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20231031161024_7130d4b3f64d24ceb93ff0d2ad2076f4dba7d7a0d52446cad4c48de5c70d6499" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Transitional justice"><figcaption>Conflict victims gathered in front of Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday to demand amendments to Nepal's Transitional Justice Bill. Photo: SUMAN NEPALI</figcaption></figure>  The UN Secretary-General then shifted focus to climate change and the need for “climate justice”, noting that although Nepal contributes negligible amounts to global carbon emissions, the country, especially the Himalaya have been significantly impacted by the climate crisis. He also added that he has proposed a Sustainable Development Goal stimulus that would release at least $500 billion a year in affordable long-term finance for sustainable development and climate action in countries like Nepal. Meanwhile, members of the civil society wrote to the Secretary-General to express gratitude for his stand on Gaza and the need for a humanitarian truce in the region, world peace, Nepal’s transitional justice, and the climate crisis. The letter also warned the UN Secretary-General about ‘national and international ‘spoilers’ wanting to foist a perpetrator-friendly ending to the peace process in the name of elapsed time and geopolitical expediency.’ However, the letter-- signed by former Commissioners of the National Human Rights Commission Gauri Shankar Lal Das and Sushil Pyakurel, MP and former Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal, activist Hira Bishwakarma, former advisor to the President Tika P. Dhakal, and writer/journalist Kanak Mani Dixit—also expressed disappointment at Guterres not having met with conflict victims. Wrote the signatories: “It is the victims, as the main stakeholders, who ensured through years of lonely struggle that opportunistic politicians and other players did not derail our transitional justice process. While you did meet the two erstwhile warring sides, you were not able to meet the victims of conflict even though representatives of five organisations had submitted a letter on the morning of 30 October seeking an appointment." Full text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres' remarks during the joint session of Parliament Your Excellencies, the two presidents of the two Houses of the Nepali Parliament, Excellencies, distinguished Ministers, Parliamentarians and Friends, allow me, before I start, to express my deep gratitude for the wonderful hospitality that the Government and the people of Nepal have provided to me during these three days. All the facilities that were put at my disposal have transformed this visit into an enormous success. I learned a lot and I commit to using what I learned to support Nepal in your struggle against climate change and for the development of your country. When I am here, I am twice at home. I have been astounded. Tthis trip has been no exception. What I have seen and experienced in the past few days will stay with me always. The sunlight hitting the Himalayas, the warmth of the people, the richness of your cultural diversity and, of course, the sanctity of Lumbini. I thank the Government of Nepal for your invitation, your hospitality and your welcome to me and to my delegation. Excellencies, we meet today amidst a world in turmoil. Decades of progress on poverty and hunger are being reversed in large parts of the world. Inflation is undermining households and national budgets. Families and countries alike face financial crises. Women are underrepresented and underpaid. I recognize the enormous effort that Nepal is making in the way for gender equality, full gender equality, and I praise your efforts and its results. Violence and conflict abound. While the conflict in the Middle East is thousands of miles away, Nepalis were among the many victims of Hamas' brutal attacks in Israel. I send my sincere condolences to the families of the 10 Nepalese students who were killed and express my best wishes for the safe return of Mr Bipin Joshi, who is missing. Distinguished parliamentarians, as geopolitical tensions rise, global divisions are becoming deeper and more dangerous. And smaller countries fear becoming collateral damage in the competition between the great powers. And climate catastrophe is accelerating with a deadly force. In responding to this crisis, the world could learn much from Nepal. This country is a promoter of peace, a champion of multilateralism, and a staunch supporter of sustainable development and climate action. Nestled between two great powers, you have forged your own path to safeguard your sovereignty and your independence, and your journey over the past 20 years has been wonderful to see. A new republic, with a new constitution, with the UN Charter at its heart. You were quick to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals, and are making progress on many of them, independently of the difficult financial conditions that developing countries face in today's unfair world. Your country has successfully calmed the storms of conflict and moved from war to peace, a process the United Nations has been proud to support. Dear parliamentarian colleagues, Nepal does not stand still. Your dynamic story of progress continues today. Your graduation from the Least Developed Countries status is imminent, and the United Nations is committed to supporting a smooth transition. You are preparing the final stages of your Nepal-led peace process, healing the wounds of war through transitional justice. A process to bring peace to victims, families and communities haunted by questions and scarred by injustice, and one that will help put the past to rest. Transitional justice can play a vital role in securing lasting peace. But we all know it's not easy. By nature, it is a delicate and complex process. We know that transitional justice has the greatest chance of success when it is inclusive, comprehensive and has victims at its heart. When it centres on truth, reparation and justice, when women participate fully, and when all victims of human rights violations can find meaningful redress. I welcome efforts here in Nepal to drive progress and find solutions in this regard, and want to tell you you are not alone. The United Nations, respecting the Nepali leadership of this process, stands ready to support you, with your victim-centred process and its implementation in line with international standards, and your own Supreme Court's rulings. The United Nations and Nepal are old friends. Our cooperation runs deep. Nepal has long been a cherished member of the UN family and a powerful voice for developing countries, most recently as chair of the Least Developed Countries Group. This relatively small country, compared with the big powers, has made an outsized contribution to international peace. Of all the countries on earth, Nepal is the second largest contributor of troops to United Nations Missions, military and police. I am sincerely grateful to the Nepali people for their dedication, their courage and their service in peacekeeping. I would like to take a moment and ask for one moment of silence to honour those Nepalis who have lost their lives serving under the blue flag. Their memory will never be forgotten, and the United Nations is proud of the exceptional contribution of Nepali soldiers and police officers in our peacekeeping missions. Dear parliamentarian colleagues, on climate action, Nepal is a frontrunner. You are on target to reach net zero emissions by 2045. Thanks to extraordinary reforestation efforts, trees now cover almost half of the country. And you are one of the pioneers of the Early Warning Systems for All initiative, which aims to protect every person on earth by 2027. Yet global crises are hitting Nepal hard, as they are developing countries around the world. The lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation, and above all the climate crisis are threatening hard-won development gains and squeezing the funds available for investment. Nepal contributes a minimal fraction of a percent to global emissions. But monsoons, storms, landslides are growing in force and ferocity, sweeping away crops, livestock and entire villages, decimating economies and ruining lives. In August, landslides caused by heavy rains caused devastation and killed scores of people. And glaciers are melting at record levels. I was a witness. Nepal has lost close to a third of its ice in just over 30 years. The effect is devastating. Swollen lakes bursting. Rivers and seas rising. Cultures threatened, and mountainsides exposed, inflaming the risk of rockslides, landslides and avalanches. Threats will continue mounting. Himalayan glaciers provide fresh water to over a billion people. As they shrink, so do river flows. Now, we have too much floods. But one day in the future, Himalayan rivers like the Hindus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra will have their flows severely limited. Combined with saltwater intrusion, that will decimate deltas in this region and beyond. That could mean low-lying communities and entire countries erased forever— millions of people on the move and fierce competition for water and land. Nepal is now one of the countries that is suffering the most. But other South Asian countries might become, in the future, terrible victims of the receding glaciers of Nepal. Dear parliamentarian colleagues, what is happening in this country as a result of climate change is an appalling injustice and a scathing indictment of the fossil fuel age. I am deeply concerned by those communities in Nepal facing the brutal impacts of the climate crisis. The United Nations stands with them. The world must do the same. That was one of the reasons why I took profit of my visit to the Everest Base Camp to issue a video for the whole world showing the drama of receding glaciers and the impacts that will have in the future. Nepal and other developing countries need far greater international support to aid development, accelerate climate action and weather the current global storms. I have proposed a Sustainable Development Goals Stimulus that would release at least $500 billion a year in affordable long-term finance for sustainable development and climate action in developing countries like Nepal. Member States welcomed the proposal at the General Assembly last month and committed to advancing it. I call on them to take action now to make this commitment a reality. Unfortunately in our world, many times people announce commitments and then do not implement those commitments. These commitments about finance for developing countries and climate action must be implemented. I urge leaders to act on climate without delay with the biggest emitters leading from the front. All countries must put the acceleration agenda I propose into effect to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C, and they must make COP28 count with a strong outcome building on the so-called global stocktake. We also need to deliver climate justice. Developed countries must honour the promise of $100 billion a year to support developing countries in climate, and double adaptation finance as a first step of devoting half of climate finance to adaptation. Investment in the resilience of communities, in the resilience of infrastructure is today a must, because climate change impacts are not a problem of the future, they are felt today by the population—and it is today that developed countries must support countries like Nepal to do the necessary investments in that regard. The most vulnerable must be at the centre of efforts to build climate resilience. And all parties must operationalise the landmark Loss and Damage Fund at COP28 this year. There is loss and there is damage. You can see it in Nepal. There must be compensation for it. The Nepali people depend on it, for families that have lost their homes to storms, for communities forced to abandon their villages by rising rivers. Loss and damage is not a negotiating point or a bureaucratic abstraction. It is a lifeline. Dear parliamentarian colleagues, Nepal has long been a friend to the international system. And today their system is in dire need of refresh, revitalisation and reform. The world is in a state of flux. It is moving towards multipolarity. And that is a good thing. A multipolar world provides new opportunities for leadership and balance on the global stage. But this new dynamic requires strong multilateral institutions to maintain peace. History shows us that. At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe was multipolar. But without strong multilateral institutions, it descended into a war that engulfed the world. That is not a risk we can take. We need strong, international reformed institutions that reflect the realities of today. But ours, like the Security Council or the Bretton Woods system, mirror the world in a different way. Since they were founded almost 80 years ago. They correspond to 1945—they do not correspond to what is the world in 2023. That must change. Developing countries must have far greater representation in international institutions. I have called for reform of the outdated United Nations Security Council, and I have proposed measures to reform the global financial architecture so that it better represents developing countries and responds to their needs. And these proposals are gaining traction at this year's United Nations General Assembly and beyond. But of course, there is always the resistance of those that benefit from the present unfair systems. The United Nations Summit of the Future next year is an important chance to push further progress, and I count on Nepal's support to help make the change we need a reality. Dear parliamentarian colleagues, multilateralism must both reflect the world and respond to it. That means creating the institutions and tools we need to address new threats and seize new opportunities. Today, technology is an example of both. It can solve problems and spur development, or it can entrench divisions and inflame inequality. Today, it is doing too little of the former and too much of the latter. We need a global response to the technologies that are changing the world at a stunning speed to harness them for the good of humanity. And all countries must have a say, not only the most rich countries in the world that have more resources to develop those new technologies. My high-level board on Artificial Intelligence includes experts from G77 countries, the global source. It will report this year, so member states can consider global governance options for artificial intelligence. And it must also bring the benefits of technology to all and ensure that in a new technological era no one is left behind. This is the purpose of the Global Digital Compact the United Nations is proposing. It aims to bring together governments and industries to ensure that technology works for all and accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals. And I hope the Summit of the Future will be an excellent chance to push progress. As a steadfast champion of multilateralism, peace and developing countries' interests, Nepal will be a vital ally at the summit. Dear parliamentary colleagues, it has been my great pleasure to visit this extraordinary country over the past few days. What I've seen confirms a simple truth. Nepal is a friend of the world. So the world must be a better friend to Nepal, and the United Nations will never stop fighting to make that a reality. I thank you.

Justice delayed, justice denied

<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/antonio-guterres-agenda-in-kathmandu">United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres</a> spent a busy first day in Nepal after landing in Kathmandu at 1AM on Sunday on his four-day visit. He had a one-on-one with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Defence Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka and Foreign Minister N P Saud at their offices in Singha Darbar. He also paid a courtesy call on President Ram Chandra Paudel, visited Patan Darbar Square heritage site and took part in a banquet hosted by Prime Minister Dahal.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231029151024_9eb3d96ff0538da012c853f151a54af94ae653412bc9559764af96a5569c812f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20231029151024_9eb3d96ff0538da012c853f151a54af94ae653412bc9559764af96a5569c812f" data-rendition-name="original" width="1800" height="1200" loading="lazy" alt="António Guterres in Nepal"> <figcaption>António Guterres with president Ram Chandra Paudel. Photo: RATNA SHRESTHA/RSS</figcaption> </figure>  Dahal and Guterres told a press meet that their discussions centred on the international situation, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/no-closure-after-nepal-s-insurgency">Nepal’s peace process</a>, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/for-destruction-ice-is-also-great-and-will-suffice">impact of the climate crisis on the Himalaya</a>, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals as well Nepal’s imminent graduation from least developed to developing country status. “Our talks were extremely cordial and we spoke frankly about expanding ties between Nepal and the United Nations system,” Dahal said, “we delved deeply into climate impacts, and appreciated the Secretary-General’s role in helping Nepal adapt to the crisis, and for greater future assistance for adaptation.” Dahal also said that Nepal’s peace process was nearing its final phase, adding: “We feel that the UN and the Secretary-General’s role in seeing it through will be important.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231029151024_725f11f9c9bbe69181b9c3cdd6a9be6c72f0c4e0526199f770124ab1d92dd1fb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20231029151024_725f11f9c9bbe69181b9c3cdd6a9be6c72f0c4e0526199f770124ab1d92dd1fb" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2400" loading="lazy" alt="António Guterres in Nepal"> <figcaption>Photo: PRADEEP RAJ ONTA/RSS</figcaption> </figure>  Dahal added that he got the impression that Guterres was well informed about Nepal’s political situation, and the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-tj-bill-protects-perpetrators-shortchanges-survivors">transitional justice process</a>. The other matter on the agenda was Nepal’s important role in contributing to the UN’s peacekeeping forces in conflict zones around the world. Dahal said Guterres was full-praise for Nepal’s contribution to peacekeeping. Antonio Guterres told the press that Nepal’s peace process and traditional justice should be concluded adhering to international law, the Supreme Court’s ruling on the matter, and the needs of the survivors and families of the victims. Guterres also met the main opposition leader K P Oli of the UML during which Oli is said to have complained about Dahal still promoting a culture of violence despite the Maoist party having entered democratic politics.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231029151024_daaf2c46d6a9303a37aa671800990ba86d2fe9b6f452594a48bf442e8f1333b6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20231029151024_daaf2c46d6a9303a37aa671800990ba86d2fe9b6f452594a48bf442e8f1333b6" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2400" loading="lazy" alt="António Guterres in Nepal"> <figcaption>António Guterres with the main opposition leader K P Oli of UML. Photo: RSS</figcaption> </figure>  Former foreign minister and UML leader Pradeep Gyawali said Oli told Guterres that he was opposed to the Maoist party pushing the anniversary of the conflict on 13 February as ‘<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/uproar-over-maoist-war-anniversary-holiday">People’s War Day</a>’. “We all need to conclude the peace process and the prime minister as a former guerrilla commander has an important role, but he is actively glorifying violence, and this is worrying for the survivors of the conflict,” Gyawali quoted Oli as telling Guterres. Oli also raised the issue of the Truth and Reconciliation Bill which still has <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">provisions for general amnesty for murders and other war crimes</a>, and violates a Supreme Court ruling.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231029151028_5152f622d878e93bc95d92fa6243fb5a11657d7fafee49e710864e283ca1f59c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20231029151028_5152f622d878e93bc95d92fa6243fb5a11657d7fafee49e710864e283ca1f59c" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2113" loading="lazy" alt="António Guterres in Nepal"> <figcaption>Photo: PRADEEP RAJ ONTA/RSS</figcaption> </figure>  “Transitional justice cannot be transitional injustice, and should be governed by the wishes of the survivors and families of the victims,” Oli reportedly said. Nepal’s peace process is regarded as a model for post-conflict societies because of the successful demobilisation of the insurgents, their induction into the national army and rehabilitation of the rest. However, there are some loose ends including <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal">lack of justice against known perpetrators of war crimes</a>, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/20-years-ago-this-week/child-soldiers">recruitment of child soldiers</a> and summary executions and disappearances by state security forces. --- UN Secretary-General's press encounter with the Prime Minister of Nepal THE SECRETARY-GENERAL -- Joint press encounter with the Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ Kathmandu, 29 October 2023 [as delivered] Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to be back in beautiful Nepal. The Prime Minister and I have just had a very productive meeting and I thank him for his wonderful hospitality. Indeed, the warm welcome that I received in Nepal is something I will never forget. We are living in difficult and tense times. I know that even though the conflict in the Middle East is thousands of miles away, it has hit very close to home for the people of Nepal. I extend my deepest condolences to the families of the ten Nepalese students killed in the terror attacks by Hamas in Israel on 7 October, and my best wishes for the safe return of Mr. Bipin Joshi, who is missing. I have just arrived here from Qatar and I will continue to insist on the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages in Gaza. And I repeat my utter condemnation of the appalling attacks perpetrated by Hamas. There is no justification, ever, for the killing, injuring and abduction of civilians. The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hours. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations. The number of civilians who have been killed and injured is totally unacceptable. All parties must respect their obligations under International Humanitarian Law. That Law emerged from the tragedy and awful experiences of war. I have always been consistent in my call for strict compliance of the well-established principles and rule of International Humanitarian Law. The protection of civilians is paramount. The Laws of War establish clear rules to protect human life and respect humanitarian concerns. Those laws cannot be contorted for the sake of expedience. The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe taking place before our eyes. More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being denied the essentials for life – food, water, shelter and medical care – while being subjected to relentless bombardment. I urge all those with responsibility to step back from the brink. And I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of a sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza. We must join forces to end this nightmare for the people of Gaza, Israel and all those affected around the world, including here in Nepal. Ladies and gentlemen, I am here in Kathmandu to strengthen the deep friendship and cooperation between Nepal and the United Nations. Nepal has a long and proud tradition of championing peace and multilateralism. And the United Nations is hugely grateful to Nepal for your support for multilateral solutions – backed up by the enormous contribution you make to peacekeeping missions around the world. Nepal’s progress over the past twenty years has been astonishing: You have become a republic, established peace, and thrown yourselves behind the Sustainable Development Goals and climate action. And there’s more to come. The next few years will be decisive, as Nepal prepares to graduate from Least Developed Country status. And as it embarks on the final stages of the peace process with transitional justice. Transitional justice must help to bring peace to victims, families and communities. The United Nations stands ready to support Nepal to develop a process that meets international standards, the Supreme Court’s rulings, and the needs of victims – and to put it into practice. Nepal is also caught in a blizzard of global crises not of its making: the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation caused by the international economic situation, and the enormous threat posed by climate chaos. Much more international action is needed. Developed countries must step up to support sustainable development, and help developing economies including Nepal to tackle the climate crisis. On this trip, I will visit the Himalayas to see for myself the terrible impact of the climate crisis on the glaciers. The situation is dire and it is accelerating. Nepal has lost close to a third of its ice in just over thirty years. And glaciers are melting at record rates. The impact on communities is devastating and I will meet local people in the Himalayas to hear directly from them about how they are affected. I will travel to Pokhara and to Lumbini, to reflect on the Lord Buddha’s teachings of peace and non-violence, which are more relevant than ever in our deeply troubled world. And I want to explore how the United Nations and Nepal can work together even more to solve problems, boost prospects, and improve international support. Because Nepal is a friend of the world, and so the world must be a better friend to Nepal. Working together, we can make that a reality. Thank you.

António Guterres meets Nepal’s leaders

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is arriving in Kathmandu on Sunday on a visit that was originally scheduled for mid-October, but was put off due to the Israel-Hamas crisis. Even during his visit he will be busy trying to find a path to peace in the Gaza war. &nbsp; The Israeli government has criticised the Secretary-General for remarks in the Security Council this week in which Guterres said the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October “<a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2023-10-24/secretary-generals-remarks-the-security-council-the-middle-east%C2%A0">did not happen in a vacuum</a>”.&nbsp; Israel took offence even though Guterres had added that the “grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas”. Israel’s censure of the UN Secretary-General’s carefully balanced speech to the Council is itself an indication of the extreme geopolitical polarisation over <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/as-in-nepal-thais-mourn-nationals-killed-in-israel">the Gaza war</a>. On his way to Kathmandu, Guterres will be stopping in Doha where he is expected to engage with Hamas’ Iranian mentors.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20231028031036_52c1f0f8be09553e6f6a26831289b6600f4b5fd0181746432cf534b4d50cb3df.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20231028031036_52c1f0f8be09553e6f6a26831289b6600f4b5fd0181746432cf534b4d50cb3df" data-rendition-name="original" width="2478" height="1416" loading="lazy" alt="UN resolution"> <figcaption>An Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly on 27 October adopted a resolution calling for 'immediate and sustained humanitarian truce' in the Middle East. Even though it did not explicitly call for a ceasefire, 120 countries (including Nepal voted for the resolution) while most western countries either voted against or abstained. Interestingly, Bhutan voted for the resolution, while India abstained.</figcaption> </figure>  Though not directly involved, Nepal has been affected by the Israel conflict. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepalis-confirmed-killed-in-hamas-attack">Ten Nepali agriculture students were killed</a> by Hamas, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/waiting-for-bipin-joshi">one is still missing</a>.&nbsp; The brutality of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/war-in-israel-earthquake-and-grief-in-nepal">the Hamas raid</a> in which most of the 1,400 victims were civilians, including women and children, has been widely condemned. The Israeli response, however, has been disproportionate, asymmetrical, and indiscriminate. More than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and many innocent women and children have been killed and injured. Even in purely strategic terms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response will be militarily counterproductive for Israel. And what is puzzling is the West’s carte blanche to the IDF to continue its carpet bombing of Gaza. The western media’s partisan coverage of the conflict in the name of ‘balance’ is even more troubling. President Joe Biden possibly is driven by his re-election bid in 2024, and bipartisan domestic support for Israel. Western governments do not even want to use the word ‘ceasefire’, preferring to call for ‘a humanitarian pause’ to Israel’s bombing. There is a danger that António Guterres will be preoccupied with the deepening crisis in West Asia so that his two main agenda points in Kathmandu (<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/no-closure-after-nepal-s-insurgency">transitional justice</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/for-destruction-ice-is-also-great-and-will-suffice">climate change</a>) will be eclipsed. &nbsp; Guterres is scheduled to address a joint session of Nepal’s Federal Parliament on 31 October, and meet former Maoist commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal who is now prime minister.&nbsp; Dahal’s main purpose in inviting Guterres to Nepal is to get a UN stamp of approval to the transitional justice process. Survivors and families of the victims of war crimes have opposed efforts by the current coalition government to ram through <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-tj-bill-protects-perpetrators-shortchanges-survivors">a bill that would grant amnesty to perpetrators</a>. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons were led by political appointees and remain dissolved.&nbsp; Since the former enemies are now in government together, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal">they do not want to rake up the past</a>. The Maoists have tried to make a distinction between ‘political murder’ and ‘criminal murder’, while state security says it was just responding to an anti-government insurgency.&nbsp; Guterres will have to impress upon his Nepali interlocutors that absence of war is not peace, and that there can be no peace without justice. Dahal, Deuba &amp; Co, on the other hand, will try to convince the Secretary General that Nepalis are ready to l<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/restorative-justice-for-peace-building">et bygones be bygones</a> and focus on economic progress, job creation and development.&nbsp; Western support for justice and human rights in Nepal <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">is not as robust as it used to be post-2006</a>. A weaker West, and ascendant India and China in Nepal’s neighbourhood may have emboldened Nepal’s leaders to determine that the geopolitical climate is conducive to conclude the peace process 17 years after the conflict ended.&nbsp; The current <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/forgetting-to-remember">Truth and Reconciliation Commission draft bill </a>allows pardons for murder, disappearances, sexual offences and torture. It legitimises the recruitment of child soldiers. And it is fuzzy on who should try such crimes.&nbsp; Allowing known perpetrators of war crimes on both sides to get away would reinforce the climate of impunity that has become even more evident after the recent presidential pardon for a convicted murderer and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-gets-gold-medal-for-corruption">political interference into police investigations into high profile corruption scandals</a>. A predecessor of António Guterres, Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden, visited Nepal in 1961, and that helped give <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/putsch-ek">King Mahendra’s coup</a> some legitimacy. Guterres is in Nepal at a time when crimes against humanity are being committed in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/remittonomics-and-conflict">Gaza war and other conflict zones around the world</a>.&nbsp; The Secretary-General’s message in Kathmandu has to be: forgetting war crimes risks a repeat of war.

António Guterres' agenda in Kathmandu

Nepal must ensure that it maintains peace as it works through its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">transitional justice process</a>, says an expert from Colombia, where violence has not stopped even though an entire legal system was created as part of the South American nation’s 2016 peace agreement.
“The sad part of this story is that we still have war,” judge Caterina Heyck said after a week of workshops and speaking engagements inKathmandu hosted by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
“In Colombia we have a peace agreement, a judicial system, but we lack peace. But in Nepal you are not lacking peace and for me that’s really amazing,” she said. “To be in a taxi in Kathmandu, or to walk on the street at night and to not feel like I might be kidnapped… that peace you should never, ever lose.”
Colombia suffered five decades of conflict with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). As many as 220,000 people were killed, 25,000 disappeared and millions displaced. But FARC splinter groups and other armed outfits still operate in some rural areas, and the current violence is said to be tied to drug trafficking.
“I can’t describe how bad it is to always have war, we are sick and tired of having a war,” added Heyck, whose ex-husband’s three members were kidnapped.&nbsp;
“Even if you ask the victims who suffered the most, more than anything else they want to live in peace,” says the judge, who has written two books on the role of kidnapping during the conflict.
Colombia’s peace agreement included the setting up of a complex court system, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), where Heyck is one of the justices. It includes two paths for prosecution: acknowledgement and non-acknowledgement.
Those who admit their acts will receive a ‘restorative sanction’, such as helping to build a bridge or finding and removing landmines. Those who do not receive an ‘alternative’ or ‘ordinary’ prison sentence, depending on whether they finally agree to cooperate.
The position of the perpetrator and the seriousness of the crimes committed are also factored into decision-making about sanctions.
“During peace talks the most difficult point was the design of the judicial system, because it was very obvious that (the top leaders of both the guerrillas and the military) were not going to sign the peace agreement if they were going to go to jail. It was as simple as that,” says Heyck.
In Nepal, where the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal">transitional just process is currently stuck</a>, recent disputes over a transitional justice law have focused on possible amnesty for the Maoists and state-side perpetrators of conflict era atrocities that are considered serious violations of human rights. In fact, it seeks to distinguish between political ‘murder’ and criminal ‘extreme murder’, which activists say renders the whole process meaningless.
A whole generation of young Nepalis has grown up <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/delay-dilute-deny">without the knowledge of the decade-long Maoist insurgency</a> that killed at least 17,000 people. It has been 17 years since the Comprehensive Peace Accord was signed in 2006. Families of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/14-years-after-conflict-no-closure-in-nepal">over 1,400 disappeared are still waiting for the truth</a>, and survivors of war crimes have not got justice.
Heyck explains that Colombia complies with international law in that it bans amnesty for those who were most responsible. “But they’re not going to go to jail if they acknowledge the truth, they’re just going to have a restorative sentence,” she says, adding, “it’s too early for us to say that we succeeded. It’s the victims who will say in the future if the system was right or wrong.”
Heyck had in-depth experience in international humanitarian law and working as a legal expert with the Colombian government, including as a peace negotiator, when she was one of 38 judges chosen for the SJP among thousands of applications.&nbsp;
Much of her time is spent poring over legal texts and discussing cases with colleagues, but she most enjoys leaving the office to research incidents involving the country’s Indigenous people.&nbsp;
She has also faced immense pressure, including as one of five justices who had to decide if a former FARC leader, Jesús Santrich, should be sent for trial in the United States or protected under Colombia’s non-extradition law.&nbsp;
“It was very tough, the American embassy was involved, and the attorney general at the time was very close to the ambassador,” Heyck explains.&nbsp;
“We asked for the evidence and the Americans did not send it… in the end, three out of five of us voted to provide him with the guarantee of non-extradition, and he was released.”
Today she feels like the wheels of justice are mired in a legal muck. She says: “We have nine years remaining… I know that it’s too little. We cannot grant justice to the victims if the perpetrator dies. Many are already in their 70s, in their 80s. Time is passing so fast, we must hurry.”
Asked whether a transitional justice process is needed in a country like Nepal, where most people appear to have moved on after the conflict Heyck says: “As a judge, as a lawyer, as a person who has worked for human rights, of course the answer would be yes. You cannot leave justice behind.”
But she cautions: “It has to be another type of justice … if after 60 years a former perpetrator who has been living peacefully is going to go to jail. That’s quite crazy. Which is why I go for restorative justice, not for punitive justice. That is the kind of justice that will bring more peace, that will go farther in terms of reconciliation. Because sometimes justice can stoke hatred, and can re-open wounds. That is not advisable.”
In Nepal, however, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/all-is-fair-in-war-and-peace">former guerrilla commander Pushpa Kamal Dahal</a> is now prime minister for the third time and has made insensitive public statements about victims. The transitional justice process is also stuck.

Restorative justice for peace-building

Nepal’s transitional justice amendment bill does not adhere to domestic or international laws, and its current draft will not adequately persecute perpetrators of crimes committed by the Maoist and state security forces during the decade-long armed conflict, said international human rights organisations on Friday.
The bill must be revised to comply with Nepal’s Supreme Court rulings and international human rights laws while ensuring consultation with conflict victims and if passed in its current form will not be accepted by the judiciary, civil society, or conflict survivors, stated Amnesty &nbsp;International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of &nbsp;Jurists.
The &nbsp;Bill for the Amendment of the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared &nbsp;Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act (2014) was presented before parliament on 19 March. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s coalition government, which introduced the amendment bill in the House, &nbsp;plans to expedite the bill drafted by Govinda Prasad Sharma Koirala &nbsp;‘Bandi’ through Parliament.
There have been negligible prosecutions of serious crimes under international law since the end of the armed conflict in 2006. More than 140 victims have <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUWleU9QIo4HgPQiXtNUKFnrylepgRjvdjnNeoDyHg7ZyXLtLiguDmCrBbY2MlwiyVQKqv55Ym5Kk1XqgWqdkVHggLKNSN0gDsmTO6avj-2ByI4fX7936n3XApk5ahsaYn6x6dKUdEOuHZvnKAMjIKlzDw-3D4BNj_Fw9I6ls453wh9AcW9OcnAOdGLtHJQWmb6iisfhwxtIrVHXOCd4VBT7bZGP2s-2FHbG9JxVKulQIyCjRDu9XnUWBhuOJZ-2BTIAC4GbOzVj7LjC7I-2FQPY6l4UxHr0M4TEpDQRHGVoZ-2FfB7KRsNoPM6Nsj-2BbwHXwfbgi-2FUxqkz4qp5XFO90WnM6Dq0NmJCvA-2F3Awb7pgkJktX5e5iI1n-2BlIWeJ-2BdL1QmDISQ3eNRARGflnhcwVF-2BlfwRG4cSgyLnmue4QEBmCfiBz" target="_blank">sought justice </a>for the disappearance and the extra-judicial killings of their loved ones through the regular courts, but successive governments have blocked progress, arguing that conflict-era cases are under the purview of transitional justice law.
“Key provisions of this bill appear to be designed to shield alleged perpetrators from prosecution for some of the most serious crimes under international law,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for South Asia. “If it is rushed through &nbsp;parliament without significant changes, it cannot be the basis for a &nbsp;process that has the support of conflict victims, nor legal credibility &nbsp;at home or abroad.”
&nbsp;Forty-two conflict victims’ organisations had issued a <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUeiDyHLvaGO87Zqvj1UKs1tbbO-2FU8Z6gkBb2a0DYpj59tIGVmctxW4SWyOhklWrq3n7eyt1TDst6qQwvA8dk2SPfsJwOmKX-2FccNnzcWGyFi95PXBrfMQpDqoZij53kjeZRVscb98lXNxLDDvin8Jv0sIEO-2BWtPZWrCawlYYW6FEtd74c4v-2BbfmXY7DIL8ZuYvQ-3D-3DtIP2_Fw9I6ls453wh9AcW9OcnAOdGLtHJQWmb6iisfhwxtIrVHXOCd4VBT7bZGP2s-2FHbG9JxVKulQIyCjRDu9XnUWBhuOJZ-2BTIAC4GbOzVj7LjC7I-2FQPY6l4UxHr0M4TEpDQRHGVoZ-2FfB7KRsNoPM6Nsj-2BbwHXwfbgi-2FUxqkz4qp5XFO90WnM6Dq0NmJCvA-2F3Awb7pgkJktX5e5iI1n-2BlIWeJ-2B" target="_blank">joint statement</a> condemning the bill on 15 March, calling it a betrayal of conflict victims and a denial of their right to justice.
Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/how-can-we-argue-that-those-victims-whose-loved-ones-disappeared-should-simply-forget">“How can we argue that those victims whose loved ones disappeared should simply forget?"</a>
The government had failed to consult conflict victims about the content of the legislation, leading victims’ groups, lawmakers, and human rights experts to identify and express concern over the draft bill after the fact in July last year. A parliamentary committee had begun necessary changes on a previous draft as a response, but the House was dissolved before the legislative proposals came to a vote ahead of the November &nbsp;2022 federal elections.&nbsp;
“Once again, Nepal’s political leaders are attempting to legislate an escape hatch for some of those responsible for serious crimes under international law,” said <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUZSUZsKQffopO3djP-2FXiLsskiG1Q6gEMW5ijTZcdpHqg1VNHdLPEKhbJiQPkGKrCUA-3D-3DhCnf_Fw9I6ls453wh9AcW9OcnAOdGLtHJQWmb6iisfhwxtIrVHXOCd4VBT7bZGP2s-2FHbG9JxVKulQIyCjRDu9XnUWBhuOJZ-2BTIAC4GbOzVj7LjC7I-2FQPY6l4UxHr0M4TEpDQRHGVoZ-2FfB7KRsNoPM6Nsj-2BbwHXwfbgi-2FUxqkz4qp5XFO90WnM6Dq0NmJCvA-2F3Awb7pgkJktX5e5iI1n-2BlIWeJ-2BSuZaj3cuf6WSa5irNKOpEuYUQzM-2FCFU96Jp8U14cdhSl-2FQtSfbiPqBCe8bTwJ29jfJQtz4dC-2BJNyMFEWVjd4A9Jk92ngcA2EnAc21CQOL-2B4w5Lq7I-2B4fhboHtaGI" target="_blank">Meenakshi Ganguly</a>, &nbsp;South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “After over 16 years of &nbsp;trying and failing with this strategy, it should be clear to them that &nbsp;only a credible and legitimate justice process will successfully &nbsp;complete the peace process.”
Per the latest draft of the bill, crimes committed during the conflict will be investigated by the two transitional justice commissions— <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=iesGENwk9ZVmCixsbOYoOPm0a2cqlI4-2BYa0QY0-2BHMSc-3D126H_Fw9I6ls453wh9AcW9OcnAOdGLtHJQWmb6iisfhwxtIrVHXOCd4VBT7bZGP2s-2FHbG9JxVKulQIyCjRDu9XnUWBhuOJZ-2BTIAC4GbOzVj7LjC7I-2FQPY6l4UxHr0M4TEpDQRHGVoZ-2FfB7KRsNoPM6Nsj-2BbwHXwfbgi-2FUxqkz4qp5XFO90WnM6Dq0NmJCvA-2F3Awb7pgkJktX5e5iI1n-2BlIWeJ-2BcF2jporiXsw31IwF-2Fo3tdwGVmqjDXnY6nyR58078mo6dC44HZktcsZdCG8vK4RWGbcD-2F7LtOMggsQEHchLk6pfIjbsm8DQAQdlgZChGcYz5CVpA-2F6Eu-2F45JewVwxLTNoaBord3WVOTwmiV8cO-2BPDLg-3D" target="_blank">Truth and Reconciliation Commission</a> (TRC) and the <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=4tNED-2FM8iDZJQyQ53jATUb66BCV2uYLYQ2jN7ruMY8dk5XeoufJFAxyp6RfA0QHdNmux_Fw9I6ls453wh9AcW9OcnAOdGLtHJQWmb6iisfhwxtIrVHXOCd4VBT7bZGP2s-2FHbG9JxVKulQIyCjRDu9XnUWBhuOJZ-2BTIAC4GbOzVj7LjC7I-2FQPY6l4UxHr0M4TEpDQRHGVoZ-2FfB7KRsNoPM6Nsj-2BbwHXwfbgi-2FUxqkz4qp5XFO90WnM6Dq0NmJCvA-2F3Awb7pgkJktX5e5iI1n-2BlIWeJ-2BaVEL-2B-2Fyqvg4M8-2FDeqMM-2F-2F6Ca-2FPYErdoi3Egjr3PUSP9uV-2FUHz4d7XRWbC2VQQIIjTjoEzLjPf67yV0b21waYGKjfnIKzWPc85YN9UQL7I5HgiG5tvZ89EP0QR9Wrq31ywgsIceQzZTTBGaixZ3HCzo" target="_blank">Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons</a> (CIEDP)—while “serious violations of human rights” would be prosecuted in a special court.
But while crimes such as rape, enforced disappearance, “cruel or inhuman torture,” and “killing of somebody after cruel torture or killing of somebody in a brutal manner” are classified as “serious violations of human rights” — the bill excludes numerous crimes under international law— providing amnesty for murder, sexual violence “not amounting to rape”, beating and mutilation, abduction, arson, forced displacement, as well as illegal detention.
Nepal’s two transitional justice commissions have received over 60,000 &nbsp;complaints regarding conflict-era human rights and international humanitarian law violations. However, not a single investigation has been completed so far. If the amendment is fast-tracked, the commissions will only have two more years to complete pending investigations that must be tried in the special court.
As it stands, the amendment bill in its current form has no plans to establish a special investigation unit to collect evidence, does not clarify how the principle of non-retroactivity of criminal law would be in line with international law and has not explained which applicable law would be used to prosecute those involved in serious crimes. The bill also enables the government to consult the Judicial Council to appoint judges to the special court as opposed to through a &nbsp;constitutionally-required independent process.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">Nepal’s Transitional Justice and the West’s recalibration</a>, Kanak Mani Dixit
“The victims of egregious human rights abuses during Nepal’s armed conflict have waited far too long for truth, reparations, and justice,” said <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/how-can-we-argue-that-those-victims-whose-loved-ones-disappeared-should-simply-forget" target="_blank">Mandira Sharma,</a> Senior &nbsp;International Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists. &nbsp;“The government of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other &nbsp;political parties in parliament should recognize that and pass the &nbsp;legislation only after revising the bill to meet victims’ needs and &nbsp;ensure respect of Nepal’s international and domestic legal obligations.”
However, &nbsp;some aspects of the current bill— such as reparation to victims previously ineligible for relief packages, as well as the right of the families of “disappeared” persons to their relatives’ property — shows progress in transitional justice, the human rights groups noted. The bill also mandates that Nepal’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission study the causes and impact of the conflict and recommend institutional reforms.

Nepal TJ Bill protects perpetrators, shortchanges survivors

Nepal’s Transitional Justice and the West’s recalibration

<img width="800" height="451" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/637235539c7e80680e0c497djpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Nepali human rights activists and survivors of the 1996-2006 Maoist insurgency have written to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres alerting him to ‘multiple flaws’ in a transitional justice amendment bill before Nepal’s Parliament.The letter was handed over to the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal Richard Howard on Monday in Kathmandu, one day before the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on 30 August. A copy of the letter was also given to Michelle Bachelet Jeria, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.The Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006 envisaged setting up a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/no-closure-after-nepals-insurgency/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/no-closure-after-nepals-insurgency/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1661934213834000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0gT_QRHglKZGU7wjxZeoZm">transitional justice mechanism</a> with the formation of a Commission for the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commissions were finally formed in 2014, but have <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/stop-stalling-transitional-justice-global-human-rights-bodies/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/stop-stalling-transitional-justice-global-human-rights-bodies/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1661934213834000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3BQNmw2JY2EtTKZ9hfL2bK">lacked teeth</a> because former enemies have served together in coalition governments that have tried to brush war-time atrocities under the carpet. Read  also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/dead-and-dying,3955">The dead, and the dying</a>, Om Astha RaiThe Commission on Enforced Disappearances did draw up a list of 1,334 people who have been missing since the conflict ended in 2006. Less than half of the families of those disappeared by both sides have received compensation.But, more importantly, most have not been told the truth about whether their relatives are dead or alive, why they were taken away, or where their bodies are. Most families have been living for the past 16 years without closure.The government had been stalling on implementing a Supreme Court ruling to amend the 2014 transitional justice law, but got the human rights activist turned Minister for Law and Constitutional Affairs Govinda Sharma Bandi last month to present an amendment bill in Parliament.Human rights activists and conflict groups have held street demonstrations against the proposed bill, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1661934213834000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3yY1dq5VJPT-IyGX1Pigr2">which they say is perpetrator-friendly</a>, and would grant amnesty to those responsible for war crimes by both sides during the conflict. Minister Bandi serves in a government led by the Nepali Congress which was in power for most of the conflict years, their coalition partners from the Maoist party which was waging an armed struggle. <img width="1554" height="1468" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/637235559c7e80680e0c497ejpeg.jpg" alt="">Both parties now find themselves on the same side, and appear to have colluded to ensure that the draft bill will allow state security forces and guerrilla commanders who are now in government to not be answerable for torture and disappearances, summary executions, rape and other heinous crimes.The letter to the UN Secretary-General seeks his good offices to ensure that changes be made to the draft bill so that families and victims receive truth and justice. It reminds the Secretary-General that the United Nations has been a meaningful partner in Nepal’s peace process, which makes it surprising that the respective Special Rapporteurs, the OHCHR and other UN entities have not publicly reacted to the transitional justice bill.The letter states that the transitional justice bill does not follow the ruling of Nepal’s Supreme Court and goes against international law. It draws attention to the re-definition and distinction between ‘murder’ and ‘cruelly conducted murder’ in the bill, as well as the issues of child soldiers, torture and wartime rape.‘The amendment bill is designed to provide de facto immunity to perpetrators of both sides,’ the letter states, adding, “we hope that the United Nations will remain engaged on the matter.’UN Resident Coordinator Richard Howard assured the meeting of human rights conflict victims’ groups (pictured) that the United Nations remained committed to values inherent in the transitional justice process.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/forgetting-to-remember/">Forgetting to remember</a>, Sahina ShresthaThe letter was signed by Gauri Sankhar Lal Das and Sushil Pyakurel (former commissioners of National Human Rights Commission), Kul Chandra Gautam (Former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Min Bahadur Shahi (Human Rights Alliance), Nani Maya Thapa (NGO Federation of Nepal), Suman Adhikari (Conflict Victim Orphan Society Nepal) and Maina Karki (Conflict Victims’ Common Platform), among others.It also included victims’ groups, including the Army Single Women and Injured Families Group, Conflict Victims’ Society for Justice, Amar Prahari Pariwar, Conflict Victims’ National Alliance, Discharged People’s Liberation Army Nepal.Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/transitional-injustice-in-nepal/">Transitional injustice in Nepal</a>, Kanak Mani Dixit

Nepali activists write to UN Secretary-General

In the black and white photograph, General Wangdu smiles broadly in front of the dusty cactus garden in Kathmandu’s Annapurna Hotel. With an ill-fitting jacket and shaggy hair he looks benign enough, but this was the last leader of the Tibetan freedom fighters who led the resistance against the Chinese from their remote mountain hideouts in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/comings-and-goings-in-mustang">Mustang</a>. Five months later, Wangdu was dead. Snapped in March 1974, I had only recently arrived in Nepal. How did I meet this legendary fighter? Possibly with his devoted camp follower, Lynne Klapecki, and probably in the Om Restaurant near Freak Street which was the preferred <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/hippie-trail-nostalgia-in-kathmandu">hippie hang-out</a>. Om Lobsang and his brother Yeshe were <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/earthquake-brings-back-memories-of-camps-for-tibetan-refugees">refugees from East Tibet </a>whose cafe offered a friendly welcome and<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/momo-loco"> the best momos</a> - they became my in-laws after I married their eldest brother Tenzin, but that was a decade later.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025052403054_4573b34282b0f5395c007243d6bef12c7ba76bfd520419e994cdcea048d795a1" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1583" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Photo: LISA CHOEGYAL</figcaption> </figure>  Wangdu’s English was enthusiastically rudimentary, but even riding around town with him on the back of an aging <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-new-motorbike-museum">motorbike</a>, he was a commanding presence. Always flanked by armed outriders, impressive scars marked his forearms and a pistol hung from the cord around his neck. A charismatic guerrilla leader, Wangdu was celebrated by his followers for his tough commitment and respected for his measured pragmatism. He seemed so young to have shouldered such a responsibility of command, leading hundreds of hardened <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/50-years-after-the%20raid-into-Tibet,1012#google_vignette">Khampa combatants </a>through what had been a particularly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/heavy-snowfall-over-nepal-himalaya">brutal winter in Mustang</a>, the last bastion to hold out against the Chinese invasion of their Tibetan homeland.&nbsp; The freedom fighters of Tibet, known as the Chushi-Gangdruk, had emerged to resist the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/territorialism">Chinese takeover</a> of Tibet during the 1950s. Estimated to be 80,000-strong at the time of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-or-who-after-the-dalai-lama">the Dalai Lama</a>’s final escape to India in 1959, the sheer number of Chinese deployed into Tibet eventually forced the Chushi-Gangdruk to retreat to Mustang, From this high Himalayan stronghold, they continued cross-border raids on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) throughout the 1960s.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2025052403054_8a4a935ba25ae79dc3a63bb5c14626927020e5ec098093c45ccb9a5982e009fd" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="676" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Guerrillas known as the Chushi-Gangdruk emerged to resist the Chinese annexation of Tibet during the 1950s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>  Their Kathmandu base was a small discreet lodge in a back lane near Rani Pokhari. Sipping sweet tea from a blue mug with a chipped lid, I sat bemused in a corner of the Mustang Hotel room whilst Wangdu and his cohorts received a battered brown suitcase from their CIA connection, a tousle-haired American in a leather jacket. Heaved onto the dingy bedspread that covered the thin mattress, it was clicked open to reveal piles of neatly stacked dollar bills.&nbsp; I cannot think why Wangdu allowed me to witness this handover but I was clearly no threat, a newly arrived world traveller with no understanding of the stakes nor any Nepali or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/tibetan-music-in-nepals-sacred-valley">Tibetan language</a>. Despite armed guards in the corridor,Wangdu radiated confidence and bravado, and there was a practiced familiarity to the tense transaction. This deadly dance for many years had been funded by the Americans, tolerated by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-kingdom-within-a-republic">Mustang’s residents</a>, and permitted by King Mahendra and the Nepali authorities who it suited to turn a blind eye.&nbsp; But Mahendra died in 1972, and times were changing. Richard Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy thawed the cold war and signalled a fresh entente with China. Nepal’s yet-to-be-crowned <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/if-birendra-was-alive-nepal-could-still-be-a-monarchy">King Birendra </a>was under pressure to curb the irritating incursions against the PLA launched from the Nepali territory of Mustang. Keen to appease his northern neighbour, on several occasions the King summoned Wangdu for peace talks but, despite increasingly overwhelming odds, Wangdu refused to surrender.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025052403054_a8efd5cfb92cd997bd7cb74296a936fef46e2f7428f9cd642b03f1ac4ea11ecb" data-rendition-name="original" width="1055" height="885" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>General Wangdu flanked by two Tibetan resistance fighters in Mustang in the 1970s. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2025052403054_75969125a745847a2ef82b6fe8b9106c0b21a116d85b8efdf5d2ee89a347bb31" data-rendition-name="original" width="1044" height="792" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>King Birendra with General Wangdu (right in dark glasses) taken in 1974 possibly in Mustang after one of their few attempts at negotiation. Photo courtesy: RAJRNDRA KUNWAR</figcaption> </figure>  While I naively rode pillion around Kathmandu in the spring sunshine, Wangdu was in the midst of what turned out to be his final round of negotiations with the Nepal government. Refusing to cease hostilities with the Chinese, Wangdu must have suspected the cost of his decision, making his cheerful smile in the photograph all the more poignant and brave. It was only much later that I appreciated the significance of the moment. Wangdu had been sent to replace the first resistance leader in Mustang, Baba Gen Yeshe, a much derided corrupt character who stole money meant for his troops and exploited fleeing refugees by seizing their treasures. Baba Gen Yeshe never forgave Wangdu,and sought revenge in May 1974 by betraying him and his commanders to the Nepal authorities. Renewed Chinese incursions from the north, active PLA collusion with the Nepali forces under the new King, and treachery from within the Chushi-Gangdrukranks combined to seal their fate.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="2025052403054_e0987a7c90d76431b0d7d5e6115ebfe3dbda7ab939e5941e079c18d722e884c0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1400" height="769" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>British television journalists George Patterson and Adrian Cowell embedded themselves with Khampa guerrillas and accompanied them from Tsum Valley on a cross border raid on a Chinese Army convoy in 1964. Photo: ESSAYS ON NEPAL / SAM COWAN</figcaption> </figure>  Mikel Dunham, renowned author of Buddha’s Warriors, writes: ‘It is possible that Wangdu was waiting for some cue from the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. It is equally possible – during that last, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-human-cost-of-nepal-s-yarsa-gold-rush?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR31-Cqw8oyIwMPzf_35e4Skr0ululJvLf3_vDkzHn-AYG2h8uPw2rqqErg_aem_tGVn5coY1-jA7fze_xqhew">desolate winter </a>– that he made the decision to go out in glory rather than admit defeat. Over the last fifteen years, Wangdu had experienced Tibet’s organized resistance being squeezed and shoved around by every conceivable outside force.&nbsp; First they had been pushed out of their own country by the PLA; then they had been refused sanction while on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/nepal-india-trans-boundary-bonds?fbclid=IwAR0PpJ5zUEbwdug3g_U3ar6FUugngRY0S8Tl2v_7wqzrsHmXWcXsKjvL4t4">Indian soil</a>; then they were abandoned by the Americans because, apparently, Nixon wanted to make friends with Wangdu’s mortal enemies, the communists; then they had been betrayed by the vampiric Baba Gen Yeshe – a Tibetan and, even worse, a fellow Khampa; and now, finally Wangdu’s army was being evicted by the Nepalis. One thing was certain: Wangdu was a warrior. To imagine Wangdu simply giving up and settling down in the pacific squalor of a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp">refugee camp </a>was unthinkable.’  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49.jpg" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="2025052403054_8fc1ffef4ae751628b90ae781b66e11e51e4fdde2787207c9042efbee345ce49" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="746" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>The much derided Baba Gen Yeshe, the first Tibetan resistance leader in Mustang, who betrayed Wangdu for personal gain. Photo courtesy: MIKEL DUNHAM</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_21" data-image-id="2025052403054_b1d833cdb00d3ac4416b844d8730475cd88c238caaaf8da69889a584eea229a3" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="656" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> <figcaption>Aditya SJB Rana of the Royal Nepal Army whose team ambushed Wangdu and his cohorts at the top of Tinker Pass in Darchula, West Nepal. Photo courtesy: GAUTAM SJB RANA</figcaption> </figure>  By August 1974 the game was up. Wangdu and six of his exhausted party were killed on their horses by <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7270">the Royal Nepal Army</a> on the brink of escape. The officer in charge, Aditya SJB Rana, cleverly predicted their route into India after they failed to silence a police radio in Yari. A carefully laid ambush trapped them near the summit of the Tinker Pass in Darchula,at 5,000 meters the highest military operation of its time. Wangdu’s body was helicoptered to Kathmandu, and a big show made of the royal Nepal victory.&nbsp; The Tibetan armed insurgency against China had reached its end.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_23" data-image-id="20250524030520_3ff9c6fc85a65bc9a2c3afe9736d9f5f9413de752e790a5d9dca0981ea94f9b4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="The last days of the Khampa NT"> </figure>

The Last Days of the Khampa

Starting 17 September Turkish Airlines will fly daily to Seville, one of Spain’s major tourist draws. This is Turkish’s sixth destination in Spain after Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, and Bilbao. Seville is in the Andalusia region on Spain’s south coast with a rich Moor history. There are approximately 30,000 Nepalis living in Spain.&nbsp;

Turkish to Seville

The newly-formed Himalayan Art Council is set to launch Nepal’s National Art Protection Platform that seeks to preserve <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-history-of-heritage">Nepal’s unique cultural heritage </a>using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/artificial-censorship"> AI-powered tools</a>. The Council seeks to safeguard <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-art-going-places">Nepali art works</a> from neglect, theft and counterfeiting as well as preserve existing artwork and celebrate living masters by giving them a cultural space to continue the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/sacred-survival">sacred art traditions</a>. "We are introducing a new digital platform designed to preserve, verify and elevate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-new-generation-of-alternative-artists">Nepal’s art for generations to come,</a>” says a statement from the Council, adding that the digital platform will use AI told for authentication and blockchain to keep track of works of art. Artists can now be protected by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/ayo-ai?fbclid=IwAR1uwmTVq4gUB70ljfRezjzukD9ArWXPuMnUikopeQ8PoiZMjicToPSwhKE&amp;=1">AI tools</a> that detect forgeries, identify their work even when unsigned, and ensure they receive proper recognition and credit. The archives will be searchable with translated inscription and interactive guides. Says curator Meena Lama: “AI and blockchains are tools that give us the power to detect fakes and identify unsigned paintings and track every piece. With these tools we can restore trust, secure authorship and give artists the dignity they deserve.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum."> <figcaption>Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  The Council is also holding an exhibition of Nepali cultural masterpieces with 50 historical <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671">thangka and paubha </a>by past masters and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/between-the-sacred-and-everyday">contemporary works by current artists</a>. This curated collection is a living tribute to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">Himalayan culture</a> with economic depictions of deities, mandala and sacred narratives. The exhibition at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-portal-into-patan-s-past-and-present">Patan Museum</a> also provides an opportunity to meet painters and custodians of art and culture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/golden-deities">Golden deities</a>, Sewa Bhattarai ‘The exhibition is only the first step in a long journey to ensure that Nepali art is no just seen but fully understood, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Narratives-of-Faith-and-Memory-Remembering-the-Lost-Sculptures-of-Kathmandu-exhibition,987">protected and remembered</a>,’ the Council says. Artist Kailash K Shrestha of Artudio has spent decades promoting thankha and paubha traditions because of their beauty and devotional meaning. But he also says artists are underpaid, exploited and ignored. He adds, “AI and blockchain are not just buzzwords, they are powerful tools that can protect Nepal’s artists from fraud, verify authenticity and build a permanent record of provenance.” Traditional Art Exhibition Till 17 May Patan Museum

Digital protection for Nepal’s art

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/prabalgurung/" target="_blank">Prabal Gurung</a> left Nepal for New York in 1999 to escape years of bullying, sexism and homophobia, and to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer. He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqN0VaoAI5w" target="_blank">realised his dream</a>, but did not escape discrimination and racism in the new world. Propelled by passion for fashion, Gurung overcame everything America threw at him. He has attained <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/prabal-gurung-recalls-his-first-met-gala-when-zoe-saldana-was-at-his-side?srsltid=AfmBOooy-H0oGgxMit864FnW_Pmw8mUnV8rYrh-co-f6OyYK6m2ip5hP" target="_blank">fame and recognition</a> for his haute couture dress designs while remaining true to his Nepali roots, and is even more resolute in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSmNauyzACk" target="_blank">fighting prejudice</a> in all its forms. Prabal Gurung’s newly-released memoir <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Walk-Like-Girl-Memoir/dp/B0DG11HCDQ?fbclid=IwY2xjawKZfpxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuZcIJO2OXyXcRm1oq1iG6wzeoF7VJFrQ7GXOFI0YxuZZ4id_CNvSZSZZIna_aem_pG_mOKG73RTnYvN8JaC4fA">Walk Like a Girl</a> is a saga of harrowing abuse in boarding schools in Nepal and India, only finding himself facing a different kind of bullying in the US. He prevails over it all to be where he is today: an award-winning American fashion designer with his own label. Walk Like a Girl was launched last week in New York at a time when everything Gurung fought for — tolerance, inclusion and diversity — are in retreat in his adopted country because of a president who has espoused a culture of bullying. The book is a searing, raw exposé of how cruel and abusive people can be even at a young age in school. On the other hand, it also shows that there are generous, compassionate and open-minded souls out there. In his book, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4le_uWX7YE">Prabal Gurung</a> calls out those who tormented and tried to hold him back (some of their names have been altered). The moral of his story is: resist, never stop believing in yourself, do not let others define you, never lose sight of your dream, and help those who have been kept out. “Walk like a girl” was a slur used by bullies back in school in Nepal and India for Gurung’s effeminate ways. He fought back then, and he is still resisting by turning those words into something to be proud of.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170544_4ffc9c3f565dd2cfa754d10b224816897b82bb31ebaee91b6d79d469fc96f14e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250519170544_4ffc9c3f565dd2cfa754d10b224816897b82bb31ebaee91b6d79d469fc96f14e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1253" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung NT"> <figcaption>Prabal Gurung at home in Kathmandu in the 1990s.</figcaption> </figure>  “Living through it all was one thing, but writing about it is one of the hardest things I have done in my life,” admitted Gurung during the launch. “I broke down constantly during the six-year writing process.” He continues: “I did not want this to be a victim’s book. I did not want to burden my readers with my emotions. I wanted my struggle to be an inspiration for others facing what I faced. I am grateful to those who bullied me in school, they made me a stronger person ready to face the world.” Indeed, this book is a departure from his earlier one titled simply, Prabal Gurung (Abrams, 2019), which was a lush pictorial autobiography of his career in fashion. Walk Like a Girl is not a typical fashion book, it is an intimate tale of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16997">Gurung’s travails and triumphs</a>, and how he willed himself to succeed. Prabal pays a lavish tribute to his mother Durga Rana. We find out she is a descendant of the first wife of the eldest son of Jang Bahadur Rana who was banished to Palpa in the late 19th century. Prabal’s father served in the Singapore Police and that is where he was born before the family returned to Nepal when he was four. Gurung relates with brutal honesty about the violence his mother endured from his father. Durga raises three children as a single mother in Nepal, and Prabal credits her for his fierce determination to resist patriarchy and injustice, which in time manifests itself in his hyper-feminine and subversive dress designs. Writing the book has been a cathartic experience for Gurung, who says he is now relieved of the burdens of his past. It no longer haunts him, and he does not have to prove anything to anyone anymore. Walk Like a Girl has life lessons not just for the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DJmOcSgxdWz/" target="_blank">fashion industry</a>, but for every other profession. How can my job serve a greater cause? Gurung tells us his work is <a href="https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/why-designer-prabal-gurung-doesnt-want-just-stick-fashion" target="_blank">bigger than just making clothes</a>, it is about making the world a better place because it could do with a lot of improvement.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170544_d75296ad8bfdc00d88935f40d23543c6fea3d4d6a10e61a99d6cfc6127f2ee5b.png" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250519170544_d75296ad8bfdc00d88935f40d23543c6fea3d4d6a10e61a99d6cfc6127f2ee5b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1516" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung"> </figure>  This story of chasing the American dream may sound familiar to many immigrants: knocking on doors for jobs, rejections, trying to survive from day to day on expensive rent, and dealing with subtle racism in white America. Gurung finds racism is rife, and he is often mockingly called ‘gaysian’. He writes: ‘There was a strong hypocrisy — this idea of independence felt like a marketting ruse … and for all the talk of feminism in America, these high society women were trapped by the patriarchy just like in Nepal and India.’ After a trek to the Khumbu region in 2013, Gurung is inspired to use the colours, palette and textures of Nepal for his collection exhibited on Manhattan’s 8th Avenue. A major buyer tells him bluntly: “Stick to making pretty dresses … if I need to see a collection like this, I could buy a copy of National Geographic.” The New York Times was equally dismissive: ‘The designer tries to draw connections between blistered techo-fabric used to construct it and the topography of his homeland, Nepal. But, at the moment, he has lost his map.’ One potential investor tells Gurung he cannot design for Americana because “you do not look American”. Gurung wants to use expletives, but restrains himself. After a fundraiser in New York for the Nepal earthquake in 2015, some belittled his effort, saying: “Here comes the saviour."&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/prabal-gurung-by-prabal-gurung">Prabal Gurung by Prabal Gurung</a>, Kunda Dixit The Gurkha DNA must be dominant in Prabal Gurung’s genes because he does not take such mistreatment lying down. When asked by a fashion publicist why he was designing clothes for fat people, he snaps back: “Because of people like you.” He joins the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, launches the Shikshya Foundation charity in Nepal, and has powerful allies among celebrities who wear clothes he designed: Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sara Jessica Parker, Kamala Harris, Deepika Padukone … it is a long list.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519150556_48a5f4211991a23fa85b64bbd5377575ca7081d97309d7542035591dda5180fe.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250519150556_48a5f4211991a23fa85b64bbd5377575ca7081d97309d7542035591dda5180fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="1534" loading="lazy" alt="Being Prabal Gurung by design"> <figcaption>Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wearing Atelier Prabal Gurung’s design for Met Gala 2025 in which the theme was ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’. </figcaption> </figure>  “I don’t dress women to look beautiful, they already are,” Gurung says. “I try to bring out their innate strength and grace.” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17908766880140171/" target="_blank">Admirers</a> tell Gurung he makes it all look so easy, but he used to put up a strong facade to not show his own vulnerabilities in public. “I was closed because of my childhood experiences,” he says. “I was always on guard to defend myself because I never knew where the next punch would come from.” But in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPVepzPA210" target="_blank">Walk Like a Girl,</a> Gurung comes to terms with his vulnerability, and bares his soul. It has not been easy, it took sustained will power and support from his mother, sister Kumudini and a circle of close friends. “I made unbelonging my power,” he says. “Nepal is where I still have my heart and soul. Nepal grounds you. It is where people go to find themselves. But I escaped.” Recently appointed vice-chair of the <a href="https://cfda.com/about-cfda" target="_blank">Council of American Fashion Designers</a>, Gurung says: “I can’t believe I am here, it feels like it is happening to someone else. Writing this book, the healing has finally begun.” <h2>‘Everything is better in color’</h2> The Met Gala was two weeks later, and my table was an example of everything I’d been fighting for all these years as my guests represented everything I believed in: dynamic, powerful, influential women who were unapologetically original and unabashedly graceful. I was grateful to Anna for inviting me to host and dress a table that reflected my ethos—and for her guidance in doing so. I was also aware of the privilege as one of the first-­ever Asian fashion designers—not just from Nepal, but from the entire continent— to get the opportunity to do so. That fact was not lost on me. I reached out beyond the expected Hollywood celebrities and well-­known socialites to curate a table of exceptional women who inspired me. I invited Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt for their first-­ever Met Galas, as well as Michelle Yeoh, Mindy Kaling, Camila Cabello, Ashley Park, Denée Benton, KiKi Layne, Quannah Chasinghorse, and Grace Elizabeth. Together we checked many boxes: Asian, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous, each woman undeniably chic and powerful, a dazzling array of skin tones and experiences that proved my decades‑in‑the-­making hypothesis: everything is better in color. Excerpt from Walk Like a Girl Viking © 2025 by Prabal Gurung  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170520_6b91d560e9f072c37d16876901058c073a51ffa05e7ad1b9461d19e1c9c28215.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250519170520_6b91d560e9f072c37d16876901058c073a51ffa05e7ad1b9461d19e1c9c28215" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung book details NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170520_345240c21be400e2ce2ec629b52bd82bb53890e5bd86fe95b48340d84b5f1748.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250519170520_345240c21be400e2ce2ec629b52bd82bb53890e5bd86fe95b48340d84b5f1748" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung book details NT"> </figure>  &nbsp;