Background

In accordance with Human Rights Council’s resolution 54/8, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Mr. Bernard Duhaime, will carry out an official country visit to Nepal from 9 to 19 June 2026.

The purpose of the visit is to assess the measures in the areas of truth, justice, reparation, memorialization and guarantees of non-recurrence adopted by the Nepalese authorities to address the serious human rights violations committed during the 1996-2006 civil war. The visit will allow the Special Rapporteur to acquire a broad view of the good practices, gaps and shortcomings of the various initiatives taken since and formulate recommendations in that regard.The Special Rapporteur will present a public report on his country visit to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2027.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

In preparation for this visit, the Special Rapporteur will appreciate receiving information from relevant stakeholders and interested parties on the measures adopted or planned by the government in the following areas:

• Truth seeking about the facts and responsibilities that led to the serious human rights violations committed during the civil war, including measures by truth-seeking commissions or similar initiatives and initiatives to search for persons forcibly disappeared.
• Criminal justice and accountability measures to address the serious human rights violations committed during the civil war.
• Reparation provided to victims/ families of victims of the serious human rights violations committed during the civil war; including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation (physical and psychosocial) and satisfaction (including apologies, recognition of harm inflicted to victims etc.)
• Memorialization initiatives about the serious human rights violations committed during the civil war.
• Guarantees of non-recurrence (GNR) to prevent future serious human rights violations, including:

1. Constitutional and legal reforms
2. Judicial reforms
3. Security sector (including armed forces) reforms
4. Institutional and civil sector reforms
5. Measures in the field of education, culture and the media to comprehensively and accurately transmit to current and future generations information about the legacy of the civil war and past violations; to promote human rights standards; and to promote mutual understanding and reconciliation.
6. Measures to address hate speech, glorification of perpetrators of gross human rights violations, denial of gross human rights violations, etc.
7. Strengthening human rights promotion and protection (including through the establishment of relevant institutions, measures and policies for the promotion and protection of human rights).

Please feel free to provide inputs to any of the questions above. Please feel also free to share the questions with anyone who might be interested in contributing. Contributions will remain confidential.

How inputs will be used?

Written contributions can be sent in Word format to ohchr-srtruthcalls@un.org by 30 April 2026. Please limit your contributions to a maximum of 1500 words per response and attach annexes, if necessary. Any other document, report or article providing further information on this topic is welcome.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write to: hrc-sr-truth@un.org

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.