With the country’s transitional justice process paralyzed, a Nepali conflict victim has taken to the United Nations forum to remind the Nepal government of its responsibilities towards the victims.
Speaking before the UN Security Council in New York on June 12, Ram Kumar Bhandari, whose father was forcibly disappeared by the state security forces in 2001, said that the state has the responsibility to search for answers and provide closure to the victims, but it has not done enough.
Nepal endured a violent Maoist insurgency from 1996, which ended after 10 years with a comprehensive peace accord in 2006.
Bhandari addressed the council as a representative of the Global Alliance of the Missing, advocating for families of missing and disappeared people across the world.
“The world has not done enough to acknowledge the suffering of the families or to address their needs,” he said. “Families in Nepal are still waiting for answers 18 years after the end of the conflict.”
This is the second time that an insurgency victim was allowed to speak before the UN Security Council, considered one of the most influential UN bodies.
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