Two Steps Forward, One Step Back the Nepal Peace Process 26
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Logo using multiply on 26 layers Accord ISSUE Editors an international review of peace initiatives Logo drawn as seperate elements with overlaps Deepak Thapa and coloured seperately Alexander Ramsbotham 2017 Two steps forward, one step back The Nepal peace process 26 Accord ISSUE an international review of peace initiatives Two steps forward, one step back The Nepal peace process March 2017 // Editors Deepak Thapa and Alexander Ramsbotham Accord // ISSUE 26 // www.c-r.org Published by Conciliation Resources, to inform and strengthen peace processes worldwide by documenting and analysing the lessons of peacebuilding Published by Acknowledgements Conciliation Resources Accord’s strength and value relies on the Burghley Yard, 106 Burghley Road expertise, experience and perspectives of the London, NW5 1AL range people who contribute to Accord projects www.c-r.org in a variety of ways. We would like to give special thanks to: Telephone +44 (0)207 359 7728 Aditya Adhikari, Anagha Neelakanthan, Fax +44 (0)207 359 4081 Andy Carl, Bhaskar Gautam, Ed Bell, Email [email protected] Elizabeth Drew, Ian Martin, Ingrid Massage, Jamie McGoldrick, John Bevan, Liz UK charity registration number 1055436 Phillipson, Nepal Transition to Peace Institute, Peter Barwick, Sarah Levit-Shore, Tania Hoerler-Perinet, Yohn Medina-Vivanco. Editors Deepak Thapa and Alexander Ramsbotham Opinions expressed by authors are their own. Executive Director This report is an output of the Political Jonathan Cohen Settlements Research Programme, funded by UK Aid from the Department for International Director of Accord Development for the benefit of developing Alexander Ramsbotham countries. the views expressed and information Director of Policy and Learning contained in it are not necessarily those of Teresa Dumasy or endorsed by DFID, which can accept no responsibility for such views or information Senior Advisor, Peace and Transition Processes or for any reliance placed on them. Zahbia Yousuf www.politicalsettlements.org Senior Advisor, Gender and Peacebuilding Twitter.com/PolSettlements Sophia Close Policy, Accord and Learning Officer Felix Colchester Accord, Policy and Practice Assistant Veronika Tesarova Copyedited by Aaron Griffiths Designed and typeset by Soapbox www.soapbox.co.uk © Conciliation Resources 2017 Permission is granted for reproduction and use of the materials for educational purposes. Please acknowledge your source when using the materials and notify Conciliation Resources. Cover photo: People and flags envelope the statue of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the founder of the Shah dynasty that ruled Nepal from 1768 to 2006, at the main entrance of Singha Durbar, the central government secretariat in Kathmandu during a demonstration, May 2007.// © Min Ratna Bajracharya. ISSN 1365–0742 ISBN 978-1-905805-25-9 Contents Acronyms 4 Introduction 5 Section 1: Peace process 11 Stability or social justice? 13 Role of the citizen in Nepal’s transition 18 Preparing for another transition? 21 Architecture of peace in Nepal 24 International support for peace and transition in Nepal 27 Transitional justice in Nepal 32 Transformation of the Maoists 37 Army and security forces after 2006 41 People’s Liberation Army post-2006: integration, rehabilitation or retirement? 46 Post-war Nepal – view from the PLA 50 PLA women’s experiences of war and peace 52 Looking back at the CPA: an inventory of implementation 54 Section 2: Political process 57 Legislating inclusion 59 Comparing the 2007 and 2015 constitutions 64 Political parties, old and new 68 Electoral systems and political representation in post-war Nepal 72 Federal discourse 75 Mapping federalism in Nepal 80 Decline and fall of the monarchy 88 Local governance 91 Section 3: Inclusion 95 Social movements and inclusive peace in Nepal 97 Post-war armed groups in Nepal 107 Secularism and statebuilding in Nepal 109 Justice and human rights 112 Gender first 114 Inclusive state and Nepal’s peace process 118 Inclusive development 121 Backlash against inclusion 123 Mass exodus: migration and peaceful change in post-war Nepal 125 Section 4: Conclusion 127 Uncertain aftermath 128 More forward than back? 133 Chronology of major political events in contemporary Nepal 137 Glossary 142 Profiles 143 Key texts 146 References 147 The Accord series 149 Two steps forward, one step back: the Nepal peace process // 3 Acronyms APF – Armed Police Force NA – Nepali Army APM – All-Party Mechanism NC – Nepali Congress CCD – Centre for Constitutional Dialogue NEFIN – Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities CCPDC – Committee on Constitutional-Political Dialogue NGO – Non-Governmental Organisation and Consensus NHRC – National Human Rights Commission CIEDP – Commission of Investigation on Enforced NID – National Investigation Department Disappeared Persons NPC – National Planning Commission CPA – Comprehensive Peace Accord NPTF – Nepal Peace Trust Fund CPN-M – Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist [later UCPN-M] NRA – National Reconstruction Authority CPN-MC – Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre NSP – Nepal Sadbhavana Party [previously CPN-M, and then UCPN-M] NTTPI – Nepal Transition to Peace Institute DFID – Department for International Development OHCHR – United Nations Office of the High Commissioner FLSC – Federal Limbuwan State Council for Human Rights FPTP – First Past the Post PLA – People’s Liberation Army GESI – Gender Equality and Social Inclusion PR – Proportional Representation HLSRC – High-Level State Restructuring Commission RNA – Royal Nepali Army JEP – Janajati Empowerment Project RPP – Rastriya Prajatantra Party JMCC – Joint Monitoring Coordination Committee SP – Sadbhavana Party JTMM – Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha SPA – Seven-Party Alliance KRM – Khambuwan Rashtriya Morcha SSP – Special Security Plan LPC – Local Peace Committee TEL – Terrorist Exclusion List LSGA – Local Self-Governance Act TMLP – Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party MJF – Madhesi Janadhikar Forum TRC – Truth and Reconciliation Commission MJF-N – Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal UCPN – Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist MJF-D – Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Democratic [previously CPN-M] MJF-R Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Republican UNMIN – UN Mission in Nepal MoPR – Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction UML – Communist Party of Nepal–Unified Marxist-Leninist MRMM – Madhesi Ratriya Mukti Morcha VDC – Village Development Committee 4 // Accord // ISSUE 26 Introduction Two steps forward, one step back Alexander Ramsbotham and Deepak Thapa How to support greater inclusion has been central to efforts to build peace in Nepal. Inclusion here is associated with social justice, in particular as it relates to identity. This focus on identity responds to the enduring dominance of established elites and the exclusion and discrimination that many marginalised Nepali communities have habitually suffered, which together acted as key drivers to sustain the Maoist insurgency from 1996 to 2006. Conflict over inclusion has not been just a wartime or post- mobilisations, deliberations and deals at state and war phenomenon, however. Rather, the war and the peace sub-state levels. process form an intense part of a much longer process of evolving political settlement, as inclusive change has been International partners – regional neighbours, India and variously advocated, incited, resisted and negotiated among China, as well as western donors and the United Nations different social and political groups – elite and non-elite – have played important roles in supporting a peaceful – over many decades and in multiple forums. and inclusive transition. But in general external actors have been less influential than most of them would have As the post-war transition has evolved since the 2006 hoped, especially in the political sphere where international Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the fate of the advocates of inclusion have struggled to avoid taking sides inclusion agenda has been determined by the progressive (or be seen to be taking sides) in the pervasive tussle and conservative blocs that make up Nepal’s politics and between reformist and reactionary agendas. Their sway society, and the shifting alignments and alliances within has also waned over time, a pattern that maps onto a wider and across these. Constitutional federalism has been a trend, whereby the post-war power of the new, progressive, central focus of the reconfiguration of power in the post- pro-inclusion forces that burst onto the political scene in conflict era, and hence for socio-political confrontation, too. the ‘transformation moment’ of the end of the war – the This has been complicated by Nepal’s political geography Maoists, but also identity-based parties and groups – has and the diffusive impact of an insurgency waged primarily also gradually faded. in the peripheries of the country by rebels advocating ethnic autonomy and decentralisation as essential jus ad bellum. Significant constituencies from either end of the political Constitutional federalism spectrum have approached negotiation over the federal has been a central focus design as a zero-sum transaction – most vehemently in “ of the reconfiguration of relation to identity-based federalism as an objective of many marginalised communities to institutionalise power in the post-conflict guarantees for more equitable representation and era, and hence for socio- distribution of resources. Political settlements have correspondingly evolved at the centre, in the periphery, political confrontation” and between the centre and periphery, through various Two steps forward,