Nepal risks letting wartime atrocities committed during the Himalayan kingdom’s Maoist rebellion go unpunished with long-delayed reforms to its transitional justice laws, rights groups have said. Both security forces and former rebels have been accused of carrying out torture, killings, rapes and forced disappearances during Nepal’s decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006 with more than 13,000 people dead.
Authorities have been criticised for failing to adequately probe abuses, with two commissions set up for that purpose in 2015 failing to resolve a single case between them despite more than 60,000 complaints. The government this month presented a bill to amend existing laws relating to war criminals, seven years after the Supreme Court ordered revisions to stop serious human rights violators from being granted amnesty. But in a joint statement, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and other international watchdogs said the proposed amendments would still make it difficult or impossible to prosecute the worst offenders.
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