Nepal laws risk sparing worst offenders
Nepal's legal efforts to deliver justice to victims of its bloody civil war do not meet international standards and risk letting the worst offenders go unpunished, rights groups warned yesterday.
The latest draft legislation to address wartime abuses still makes it difficult to prosecute serious crimes, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists said in a joint statement.
The tiny Himalayan nation has been rebuked for repeated delays in implementing a peace process more than a decade after fighting with Maoist rebels ended in 2006.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Nepal ruled that laws passed by the government to remedy war-era grievances did not meet international scrutiny.
But a fresh amendment currently under consultation has done little to close these loopholes, rights groups said.
Crimes like torture and enforced disappearances remain undefined, meaning major offenders may slip through the cracks.
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