Conflict victims and human rights defenders have warned that last week’s nine-point agreement between the major coalition partners could have serious consequences for the country.

At a joint press conference in the Capital on Monday, the Conflict Victims Common Platform and human rights activists said that they would take to the streets from Wednesday to oppose the government move to grant amnesty to perpetrators of right violation during the conflict period.

“The pact has ended conflict victims’ hopes of justice,” said Suman Adhikari, chairperson of the Platform, an alliance of conflict victims organisations. “There can never be amnesty on serious human rights violation.”

The ruling CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) on May 5 had inked a pact agreeing to move forward the transitional justice process with required legal reforms, including amnesty and clemency on conflict era cases, which are against the Supreme Court rulings.

“The ruling parties have undermined the court orders, breached the international conventions to which Nepal is a signatory,” said General Secretary of the Platform Ram Bhandari.

Advocate Dinesh Tripathi argued the rights violators can be brought to justice under international jurisdiction if the national legal system fails to provide justice. “The real worry is that Nepal is turning into a rogue state that violates its own constitution and rules,” he said.

More than 13,000 people were killed and 1,300 forcibly disappeared during the 10-year armed conflict. While the war ended in 2006, the country’s recovery has been stagnated by the government’s failure to uphold the rights of victims of conflict-related human rights violations, including unanswered questions about the whereabouts of more than one thousand people.

Speakers pointed out five (3-7) points of the agreement between the major coalition partners were aimed at providing amnesty to the war criminals.

Rights activist Charan Prasai argued the pact has undermined the judiciary. “By breaching the court orders, the political parties have challenged the judiciary independence, while promoting impunity in the country,” he said.

Activist Sabitri Shrestha announced about their plan to stage a sit in outside the Prime Minister’s resident in Baluwatar on Wednesday. “We want peace through justice,” she said. “This pact has once against compelled us to take to the streets.”