CCPR/C/119/D/2184/2012 be issued. The State party should also provide the author with medical and psychological care immediately and free of charge, through its specialized institutions, and grant her access to free legal aid, where necessary, in order to ensure to her available, effective and sufficient remedies. As a guarantee of non-repetition, the State party should take the necessary measures to ensure that enforced disappearance and torture, and the different forms of participation in these crimes, constitute autonomous offences under its criminal law, punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their extreme seriousness. State party’s observations on admissibility 4.1 On 10 October 2012, the State party submitted its observations on admissibility and contended that the author has failed to exhaust domestic remedies and that her claims are manifestly ill-founded. 4.2 The State party maintains that the author’s allegations concerning the circumstances in which the alleged arrest, detention, enforced disappearance, torture and arbitrary deprivation of life of her husband took place are not supported by any direct and circumstantial evidence. In this regard, on 26 August 2010, the Supreme Court quashed the author’s writ of mandamus lodged in favour of her husband because she was unable to show that he had in fact been detained and murdered by members of the Royal Nepalese Army. Furthermore, these allegations cannot be confirmed from the reports of OHCHRNepal and the National Human Rights Commission or the judgment of the Supreme Court of 1 June 2007. In that context, the author’s allegations of violations of the Covenant are therefore ill-founded. 4.3 The author has not filed a first information report with the police as required by the State Cases Act of 1992. If she had, the concerned authority would have conducted an investigation. The author has therefore failed to exhaust the available domestic remedies. 4.4 The State party submits that the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 expressly stated that a truth and reconciliation commission was to be constituted to investigate the cases of individuals involved in serious violations of human rights during the course of armed conflict. Furthermore, human right violations in periods of armed conflicts need to be treated with specific investigations and remedies. Regular criminal justice cannot apply to such issues; a point which has also been accepted by the Supreme Court of Nepal. Once this Commission issues its report after conducting investigations, it will be up to the criminal justice system to prosecute the perpetrators. In this sense, transitional justice mechanisms are complementary and supplementary to the existing criminal justice systems. As it is making efforts to establish a transitional justice mechanism as soon as possible, the State party urges the Committee to understand its special situation. 4.5 The State party has provided Nr 300,000 to the family of each victim of the armed conflict whose whereabouts remain unknown, as interim relief. Victims may obtain further relief or reparation from the State after the establishment of a transitional justice system. 4.6 The State party contends that the existing criminal justice system is functioning well. Under the State Cases Act of 1992, Nepalese police has conducted investigations in relation to some offences committed during the period of armed conflict. Author’s comments on the State party’s observations on admissibility 5.1 On 14 December 2012, the author submitted her comments on the State party’s observations. She reiterates that her husband’s detention by the Royal Nepalese Army was confirmed by the testimony of three different former detainees of the Bhairab Nath Barracks. Furthermore, the reports of OHCHR-Nepal and the National Human Rights Commission also confirmed Mr. Nakarmi’s enforced disappearance. The Supreme Court of Nepal itself took note of the testimony rendered by one of these former detainees in its judgment of 1 June 2007, in which he indicated that her husband had been in the Barracks and had died as a result of acts of torture. This evidence also supports her claim that conditions of detention at the Bhairab Nath Barracks were inhumane and that inmates were generally subjected to torture. 5.2 In cases of enforced disappearance where the clarification of the facts depends on information exclusively in the hands of the authorities, the State party is under the obligation to investigate these allegations ex officio in good faith, even in the absence of 6