United Nations Day usually coincides with the important festivals of Dashain and Tihar, a time of reflection on past achievements and future hopes. It was in 2005, as the Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, that I first celebrated UN Day in Nepal. At that time there appeared to be no end in sight to a conflict with thousands of civilian victims, and democracy seemed far from the horizon. Today, among the many continuing conflicts and failing peace processes around the world, the major steps that Nepal has taken in its peace process deserve to be recognized. For fifty years Nepalis have served in United Nations’ peace operations around the world, and now the UN has responded to Nepal’s request for support to its own peace process.
While the historic election and the formation of an inclusive Constituent Assembly are indeed landmark achievements, there are major challenges still ahead for the successful conclusion of the peace process. Sustaining peace requires the broadest possible consensus on a new federal constitution, as well as efforts to heal the wounds of the conflict – to clarify the fate of those who disappeared, to compensate victims, to enable the return of displaced persons to their homes, to undertake an honest and inevitably painful acknowledgement of the truth of past human rights violations, and to end impunity.
No peace process can be said to be complete while there are two armies in one country. I hope that the efforts now being made to establish the special committee responsible for the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army combatants on a multiparty basis, as agreed, will soon be successful. A continuing spirit of dialogue and compromise, and an approach of seeking consensus on the toughest issues related to completing the peace process, will be essential to its ultimate success.
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Publisher:
UNMIN
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(2008
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Type / Script:
Press Release
in English
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Keywords:
PEACE, PEACE PROCESS, PEACE AGREEMENT, HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE BUILDING, PEACE MAKING, CONFLICT, ELECTIONS, CONSTITUTIONS, COMMUNIST PARTIES, ARMIES, ARMED FORCES, POLITICAL SITUATION, GOVERNMENT, DEMOCRACY
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Thematic Group:
UNMIN
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Peace and Conflict through Political Mission
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Thesaurus:
14.02.02
- Human Rights
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Reference Link:
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