CCPR/C/126/D/2560/2015 defenders and other stakeholders, the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons has drafted its regulations and has been developing its terms of reference. 4.9 The Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons will call upon all victims of the conflict to come forward with their problems and to file cases to it. The Commission is competent to ensure transparency while maintaining the privacy of victims in the process of fact-finding and investigation. 4.10 The State party further asserts that the international community and, specifically, the Human Rights Committee are legitimately expected to understand the transition and special situation of Nepal. Without the establishment of transitional justice mechanisms, the victims of armed conflict cannot get full justice. Nepal has observed international law while establishing its transitional justice mechanism and affirms that cases of serious violations of human rights will be addressed in line with international norms and instruments. The State party also submits that a bill to criminalize torture and a bill to criminalize enforced disappearance have been presented to Parliament. 4.11 Referring to the official record provided by the Nepalese Army, the State party admits that Ramhari Kandel, one of the authors and the brother of Amrit Kandel, was arrested and detained for investigation pursuant to the applicable laws of Nepal but asserts that he was not implicated in an act of enforced disappearance. He was freed on 10 December 2003, as confirmed by official records. However, no record of the arrest and detention of Amrit Kandel was found. 4.12 The State party reiterates that it has fulfilled a number of important transitional commitments, including the establishment of a transitional justice mechanism, and that it has been seriously working to address human rights violations. It affirms that its commitment to promoting and protecting human rights is total and unflinching. 4.13 In conclusion, the State party argues that the communication is not admissible given that the authors have not exhausted the available domestic remedies. The matter can be addressed and remedies can be provided through the national transitional justice mechanism. Alternatively, the communication lacks merit. In the light of the above, the State party requests the Committee not to consider the communication. Author’s comments on the State party’s observations on admissibility and the merits 5.1 On 16 November 2015, the authors submitted that the State party has not refuted the facts described by the authors. The authors thus assume that the State party acknowledges the authenticity of the authors’ claims and the accuracy of the facts described in their initial communication. 5.2 As detailed in the original communication of 11 April 2014, the enforced disappearance of Amrit Kandel has been documented by several domestic and international human rights bodies. In this regard: (a) in 2006, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report in which it included Amrit Kandel’s name among those who remain disappeared after being held in Maharajgunj barracks in 2003; 2 (b) on 1 June 2007, in a judgment based on the consideration of 28 different writs concerning enforced disappearances perpetrated during the conflict by security forces, which included a writ filed on behalf of 34 disappeared persons, including Amrit Kandel, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the Government, inter alia, to form a high-level investigative commission on enforced disappearances, to make public the status of those disappeared, including Amrit Kandel; (c) on 4 December 2007, the National Human Rights Commission published a report in which it wrote that Amrit Kandel was being held in custody by the Bhairabanath Battalion;3 (d) in 2009 and 2011, Amrit Kandel’s family was awarded a total of 300,000 Nepalese rupees (approximately 3,000 United States dollars) for Amrit Kandel’s enforced disappearance, as part of the Interim Relief Programme established by the 2 3 6 See “Report of investigation into arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances at Maharajgunj RNA barracks, Kathmandu, in 2003–2004”, May 2006, annex A. See the Commission’s “ceasefire report”, sect. 2.5. Available from www.nhrcnepal.org/nhrc_new/doc/newsletter/Ceasefire%20report%20final.pdf.