In a bid to unleash the causes of conflict and provide relief and reparation to the victims, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed on 21 November 2006, some 18 years ago.
The objective of the peace accord signed between the government and the then rebel force, CPN (Maoist), was to investigate the truth about people seriously breaching human rights and involved in crimes against humanity and bring the perpetrators to justice, thereby keeping peace in the society by normalizing the adverse situation arising out of the armed conflict.
After a prolonged sabre-rattling, the government had established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Commission for Investigation of Disappeared Persons on February 10, 2015.
The two commissions were constituted eight and a half years after the agreement between the government and the former rebels. Both the commissions took applications from the survivors and initiated general works related to reparation, but could not take strides on other aspects.
It may be noted that the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and CPN (Maoist) Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' had signed the 12-point CPA to bring a decade-long armed conflict to the peace process.
On the basis of the same agreement, the promulgation of the Interim Constitution, the two rounds of election to the Constituent Assembly, and the drafting of the Constitution were accomplished.
Yet, it is imperative to provide relief, justice and reparation to the survivors that are the backlog of the home-grown peace process, and spell out the causes of the conflict and prevent repetition in coming days.
Recently the government had initiated the process by forming a 'recommendation committee' to recommend office-bearers to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission for Investigation of Disappeared Families on April 12, 2024.
The recommendation committee headed by former Chief Justice Om Prakash Mishra will recommend the office-bearers of the two commissions. The application process is currently underway. Although the government and the concerned political parties were of the common stance that justice should not be delayed to the victims, there were some doubts about the enactment of the law for a decade.
Since the Transitional Justice Act was enacted on the basis of political consensus last time, the basis for the survivors to get justice has now been prepared. (RSS)
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