Contributed articles.

Contributed articles.

It has been 14 years since the armed conflict between Maoist insurgents and government forces ended in Nepal. Tens of thousands became victims of enforced disappearances, torture, rape, and unlawful killings in the decade of fighting between 1996 and 2006. They are still waiting for truth and justice. There have been hardly any successful prosecutions since the end of the conflict for severe violations. Resistance to address past abuses has entrenched impunity in the present and, combined with a failure to ensure security sector reform, has led to repeated lack of punishment in cases of serious human rights violations which still occur in Nepal. In a mounting number of alleged extrajudicial killings by the police, custodial deaths allegedly resulting from torture, and shootings of unarmed protesters in recent years, the authorities refused to take action despite strong evidence. We conclude that failure to provide justice for past crimes creates direct and tangible harms in the present: families who lost loved ones years ago continue to seek justice and are forced to live without closure. And as new cases of abuse by the police show, impunity for past crimes means that unaccountable and abusive individuals and institutions continue to claim new victims in post-conflict Nepal.

Cultivating Peace: Conflict and collaboration in natural resource management

This volume analyzes the context, dynamics and key players shaping Nepal's ongoing peace process.

Contributed articles.

This guide collects and summarizes good practices on the successful mediation of resource conflicts. It draws on the field experiences of mediators and mediation experts, specifically those with natural resource expertise. It also features lessons learned from UNEP's work on environmental diplomacy in different conflict-affected countries, with a particular focus on how to use impartial technical knowledge to equalize stakeholder information in a mediation process.