The Complexities of Delivering Justice and Truth Simultaneously in Transitional Justice Processes with a Special Focus on Nepal

This thesis investigates the complexities of delivering truth and justice simultaneously in countries undergoing transitions. It argues that designing truth and justice mechanisms as part of a holistic TJ system offers an opportunity for truth and justice to incentivise each other and alleviate some of the challenges and complexities their simultaneous existence creates. The TJ landscape has changed significantly in recent years, embracing a holistic notion entailing the systematic coexistence of its four main components: truth, justice, reparation and guarantee of non-recurrence. However, a gap exists in literature explaining how those different components work as a system, how they coexist, complement each other, and how to address the complexities and tensions they create, and how to overcome them in practice. To fill this gap, this thesis starts by analysing the development and normative content of the obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish gross violations of human rights and international crimes as well as the right to know the truth. It then turns to existing experiences including Sierra Leone, Argentina, South Korea and Colombia. The thesis gives particular attention to Nepal, where a struggle to deliver truth and justice as part of its TJ process has continued for more than a decade resulting in the enactment of a legal framework, providing some prospects for both truth and justice to co-exist. The thesis identifies what needs to be done to design truth and justice as part of holistic TJ system, how they provide incentives to each other when they are designed as part of a holistic system. This thesis fills a gap in TJ literature and provides reflections that are of relevance to Nepal and other countries, such as Colombia, that are immersed in holistic transitional justice processes.