Leaving no one behind: Building community capacities in Nepal for inclusive transitional justice, reconciliation and conflict resolution

Background: Nepal’s 10-year ‘People’s War’ (1996–2006) radically changed the country. More than 14,000 people lost their lives and thousands more were injured or displaced. Since the end of the armed conflict, which lasted from 1996 to 2006, the Nepal government has struggled to meet the demand for an adequate justice and reconciliation process to support victims that were impacted by it.

Despite assurances that the issue remains a priority, the two commissions that were set up to guide the TJ process, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission for Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) remain chronically under-resourced, opaque and ineffective at meeting even the most basic needs of victims. As of April 2019, the commissioner positions at both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission for Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) remain vacant and no concrete steps or actions have been taken to act on the registered cases by either commission even after the completion of their four year tenures.

The project partners are International Alert, FWLD & TPO Nepal, where TPO Nepal will take lead in effectively implementing the psychosocial support and counselling component of the project. Psychosocial Support will include group healing intervention, psychosocial group support activities, normalizing activities and individual counselling. This will also include activities to advocating to local government and hospitals for the state to make provisions for psychosocial support to the victims for the long-term provision of this service.

Results:

• Individual psychosocial counseling provided to 206 conflict victims
• Seven days Community Psychosocial Workers (CPSW) training was conducted wherein 21 participants from four districts (Dang, Banke, Bardiya and Kailali) were trained
• Six days training based on National Health Training Centre (NHTC) Module 2 for prescribers (Medical Officers and Health Assistants) and Module 1 for non-prescribers (nursing staff) were conducted with 43 participants(n=23 on Module 2 and n=20 on Module 1) in two batches. Additionally, four days’ clinical supervision of health workers trained on Module 2 was conducted.
• Seven days Group Healing Intervention was conducted with 10 female victims of conflict from the indigenous ethnic group of Dang district

Target group: 200 cases related to human rights violation

Implementation area: Kailali, Bardiya, Banke & Dang

Time frame: December 2019 – March 2022

Supported by:  International Alert / U.S. Department of State, The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour (DRL)