Nepali Supreme Court Rejects Amnesty for War Crimes (February 26, 2015) [1]
On February 26, 2015, the Nepali Supreme Court rejected [3] amnesty for persons who committed serious human rights abuses during the decade-long civil war between government forces and Maoist rebels that killed more than 17, 000 people. Both groups were accused of war crimes, and in 2014 the Nepali legislature passed a bill [4], the TRC Act, establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Commission on Enforced Disappearances, with discretion to grant amnesty to perpetrators. The legislation was controversial [5] and condemned by Navi Pillay [6], former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as “deny[ing] the right of thousands of Nepalese to truth and justice.” In rejecting the amnesty provision, the three-judge bench stated that “the consent of the victims is necessary for any reconciliation.”