The role of victims organisations in transition from conflict: families of the disappeared in Nepal

Abstract

Nepal‟s armed conflict (1996-2006) may be over, but victims and their families continue to suffer the effects of past violations. While unaddressed grievances live on, the post-conflict agenda has been dominated by national and international human rights agencies that lead the discussion through their own agendas. Limited progress has been made at the political level, but peace and reconciliation remains elusive at the local level; hundreds of families are still waiting to learn the truth about their loved ones. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended Nepal‟s conflict contains commitments to create both a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Commission for Disappearances; however, in the five years since the conflict neither has been created. Lack of consultation with victims‟ communities has left campaigning and advocacy fragmented and useful only as tools to serve elite interests. Victims‟ organisations, such as the CVC, represent the most effective way for victims to contribute to Nepal‟s transitional justice process. The primary challenge for those trying to advance a transitional justice agenda is to ensure that advocacy represents an agenda rooted in the experience of those who need truth, justice, livelihood support and sustain peace, not a prescriptive global agenda divorced from victims‟ realities.