Activists and victims of war crimes in Nepal have urged the government to not proceed with proposed amendments to a law that governs the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

The twin probes are supposed to “investigate the facts about those involved in gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity” committed during the South Asian nation’s decade-long civil war between 1996 and 2006. The mandate for both commissions, established under the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, is set to expire in a fortnight, and legislators are yet to amend the statute to extend the tenures. Human rights activists have denounced the government-mooted amendments to the law for failing to incorporate the concerns of war crimes victims.

Section 13(5) of the legislation delineates the functions and duties of the bodies. While the CIEDP is to “investigate into the matters relating to the enforced disappearances,” the TRC is authorized to “investigate into the matters relating to other incidents of gross violations of human rights.” More than 60,000 complaints have been filed before the commissions.

Both the CIEDP and the TRC have been widely criticized as ineffective mechanisms. With the February deadline for the mandate extension looming, the UN cautioned Nepal on Thursday that it risked failing war crimes victims since not a single case investigated by the CIEDP and TRC has been resolved. The Nepal government was asked to “clarify to the public its plans to take the transitional justice process forward in the ongoing year,” in a joint statement signed by the embassies of the US, Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Finland, Norway, Switzerland and the UN.

Nepal’s government says that the bill proposing to amend the law adequately addresses all previous shortcomings in light of international law obligations related to human rights and decisions of the country’s Supreme Court. The Conflict Victims Common Platform (CVCP), a victims’ rights organization, has rejected the government’s claims. Suman Adhikari, former chairman of the CVCP, said that “provisions of immunity and no punishment to the perpetrators of serious human rights violations,” in the present law and the proposed amendment, are “not acceptable to conflict victims and the CVCP.” Section 26 of the Act empowers the commissions to recommend amnesty for those found guilty. The amnesty provision has been an irritant during discussions between the government and victims.