Releasing a report on Sunday, the national human rights body has also urged the government to prioritise and assign Nepal police to investigate two cases of exhumation conducted in Dhading and Kailali districts about eight years ago.

During the launch of the report, NHRC said that the government should favour the victims and take action against human rights violators. “Even though we have handed over the exhumed remains, the state has failed to take legal action against those found to be responsible for those crimes,” said Bed Prasad Bhattarai, Acting Secretary at NHRC.

Among other recommendations, the NHRC has asked the government to adopt National Human Rights Commission Exhumation Guidelines 2012 which will be effective in collecting anti-mortem data, establishing a DNA Bank and developing expertise among the involved human workforce.

More than 1300 people are believed to have disappeared during the insurgency between 1996 and 2006. The NHRC has confirmed 933 cases of disappearances, while it has registered 3,300 complaints about them. Till now, 11 exhumations have been carried out by the NHRC in various parts of the country including Ramechhap, Nuwakot, Dhading, Kavre, Kailali, Dailekh, Kathmandu and Dhanusha.

During the program, Devi Sunuwar, a conflict victim, complained that the government has undermined the cases involving human rights violations of the conflict era and hence delaying justice even after signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which assured to make information on disappearances public in six months.

“The families of victims including me have been further victimised by the government's failure to ensure justice,” said Sunuwar.

At the same program, Ram Kumar Bhandari, coordinator of the National Victims' Alliance, criticised the government for not listening to the issues of the victims resulting in recently endorsed Act on transitional justice failing to criminalise forced disappearances. “The government itself has been protecting the perpetrators of human rights abuses, because of which justice remains elusive,” he said.