[JURIST] Nepal on Thursday extended the mandates of two separate commissions tasked with investigating crimes from the country’s civil war [JURIST report]. This extension [Pakistan News report] came hours before the mandates were set to expire without any cases actually having been investigated in the two-year period. The mandates have been extended for another year. However, some critics believe one year is not enough, especially given that the fact that the government has not granted the commission legal power under international law to prosecute war crimes.

Nepal’s decade-long civil war [JURIST report] that led to the abolition of the Nepali monarchy. In May 2012 the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered [JURIST report] the government to complete the final draft of the nation’s new constitution by the following week. When that deadline was not met, then-prime minister Baburam Bhattarai announced [JURIST report] the 2008 parliament would be dissolved and new elections would be held later that year. In January 2014 the Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that the selection of a new president was not an immediate need and should be postponed until the adoption of a new constitution. When officials met in January to draft the constitution, the meeting ended in violence [JURIST report], but officials have stated that the April earthquake, which killed more than 8,700 people, drove the leaders to work together and resolve the disputed issues. In June leaders of the four major political parties in Nepal reached an agreement [JURIST report] on key issues for the new constitution and settled on dividing the country into eight federal states.