Kathmandu, Nov. 7 -- A United Nations human rights expert has urged Nepal to make transitional justice a national priority, calling on the government to expedite appointments to two long-vacant commissions and revive a process that has made little progress nearly two decades after the end of the decade-long Maoist insurgency.

Bernard Duhaime, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, made the appeal as Nepal prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Accord, signed on November 21, 2006, which formally ended the armed conflict.

Despite repeated national and international calls for progress, Nepal has yet to complete key elements of the transitional jus...