A team of three lawmakers -- Khim Lal Devkota of the Maoists, NC´s Ramesh Lekhak and UML´s Agni Kharel -- prepared the drafts as tasked by the three-party meeting on Friday and submitted them at the meeting of the top leaders Saturday.[break]
Though the political parties had committed themselves to forming the two commissions and forwarded the bills to parliament some two years ago for the purpose, they could not finalize them as the parties remained sharply divided over some crucial provisions, such as categorization of the crimes that took place during the decade-long Maoist insurgency.
As per the new draft, the TRC will be entrusted with uncovering the truth and working on reconciliations, reparations and pardons and recommendations for punitive action.
The commission will decide whether or not any given culprit can be granted pardon, taking into consideration the consent of the victim also.
The TRC will at first try to bring about reconciliation between the two sides -- victims and perpetrators -- and settle matters. The TRC will initiate efforts for repentence, reparations and pardons to bring about reconciliation between the two sides.
"If a victim is not ready to grant a pardon and the commission also finds grave human rights violation in a case, the body will recommend punitive action to the concerned authorities," Lekhak told Republica.
If a case is not settled between victim and perpetrator, the TRC will then take it up and decide whether or not a pardon is possible.
Sometimes a victim may want to file case against the perpetrators but the commission may not forward the case if it doesn´t find sufficient ground for doing so. "Sometimes the victims and perpetrators act purely as warring sides and in a mood for revenge. Therefore, the commission needs to find out the reality and judge on its own whether or not allegations are baseless," Lekhak told Republica.
Earlier, the party leaders were for categorizing crimes into those that can or cannot be pardoned. And they disputed for long over the nature of the crimes that can be pardoned. This time the leaders agreed to leave the relevant bill silent with regard to categorizing the crimes and to leave it to the commission to judge whether or not a pardon is possible in a specific case.
Leaders involved in the talks said the proposed law makes the role of the commissions very crucial and decisive. They said both the commissions will be formed to the same standards and will be on an equal footing.
Formation of commissions
A three-member recommendations committee headed by the speaker will be formed to suggest names for the heads and members of the two commissions.
The head of the National Human Rights Commission or a member recommended by him/her will one member of the recommendations committee and an expert in the field of conflict management, psychology or sociology will be the other member.
The recommendations committee will suggest names for the seven-member commissions. Though the committee will suggest the names in consultation with the political leaderships, the draft bills have set out the required qualifications and criteria.
"A candidate for the post of commission chairman should be a retired supreme court justice or an individual who has already served in a special class post in the judicial service," Kharel told Republica.
Similarly, any candidate for the post of commission member should be an individual who meets the qualifications for becoming a judge in the apex court or be a renowned expert in related fields such as conflict management, psychology or sociology. Two women members are mandatory in each of the seven-member commissions.
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