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NPTF Board Approves Transitional Justice (TJ) Program Document
Kathmandu
18 March 2016
The Board Meeting of the Nepal Peace Trust Fund (NPTF) held at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR) on Friday approved the program document for Transitional Justice and Reconciliation opening up the possibility of developing projects for establishing durable peace.
The Minister of Peace and Reconstruction Ek Nath Dhakal chaired the meeting that was attended by the State Minister of Finance Damodar Bhandari, the State Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Deep Narayan Sah, the EU Ambassador and Donor Chair Ms. Rensje Teerink and senior government officials.
“Peace, stability and social harmony are timeless goals and critical enablers for poverty eradication and sustainable development (through a peace sensitive development approach),” Mr. Dhakal said after the approval of the program document.
“We are thinking of establishing an institute of peace studies and research perhaps in collaboration with universities to which we can handover all our resources and documents,” he added.
The minister thanked the participants for approving the program and said that the main concern of future development should be on ensuring “peace-sensitive development”, an idea that the MoPR has been working on over the years.
Secretary of the MoPR Ishwori Prasad Paudyal informed the meeting on the progress made by the NPTF towards implementing projects that are critical for concluding the peace process.
He said that NPTF first and second phases have so far supported 65 projects and the Peace Fund Secretariat has already reviewed concept notes for 13 projects to be implemented under the third phase of NPTF (2014-2017).
Mr. Paudyal said the ministry will focus on implementing projects to complement the transitional justice process by supporting land reforms – for example – which is also included in the Comprehensive Peace Accord.
The Ambassador of the EU Rensje Teerink said that the approval of the program document has opened way for developing projects to support victim-centric processes and suggested that the project approval process be expedited.
She added that it would be ideal if the project documents were approved before mid-April to allow enough time for project implementation.
The Ambassador also expressed concern over the delay of some on-going projects and suggested that the NPTF should consider closing down non-performing projects and to make refunds to donors that have discontinued support to the Fund.
Representatives of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Rashtriya Prajatantra Party Nepal and Federal Socialist Forum Nepal, and the senior officials from Ministry of Home Affairs and MoPR attended the meeting.
The Executive Director of the NPTF Sanjaya Kumar Khanal made a presentation on the program document that was approved by the 18thBoard meeting. He also informed the Board that NPTF III had already approved six projects and would focus on preparing projects on Transitional Justice and Reconciliation.
The overall goal of the program document is to “secure foundation for durable peace through a holistic transitional justice and reconciliation process” which the document hopes to achieve by promoting rule of law to ensure non-recurrence of violent conflict, satisfaction of the victims, and increasing access to justice, among others.
Sankar Prasad Kharel
(Joint Secretary & Spokesperson)