Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) 2006 explained clause by clause

The Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) - in Nepali, Vistrit Shanti Samjhauta - is the master agreement that formally ended the Nepalese Civil War, the armed conflict waged by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), or CPN (Maoist), against the state from February 1996 to 2006. It was signed on 21 November 2006, which corresponds to 5 Mangsir 2063 in the Bikram Sambat (BS) calendar, in Kathmandu.

The accord was signed by then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, representing the Government of Nepal and the Seven Party Alliance (SPA), and by Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', chairman of the CPN (Maoist). It built directly on earlier steps of the peace process, including the 12-point understanding of November 2005 and the historic Seven Party Alliance-Maoist summit decisions of 8 November 2006, and it converted the existing ceasefire into a permanent one.

Crucially, the CPA is not only a truce. It set out a roadmap for restructuring the Nepali state: ending the political role of the monarchy, electing a Constituent Assembly, and drafting a new constitution. Many of its commitments were carried forward into the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 (2063 BS), promulgated on 15 January 2007, so the accord functions as a foundational document of Nepal's transition from a Hindu kingdom to a federal democratic republic.

The CPA is structured into 10 numbered sections, moving from preliminary definitions through the core security and political commitments to human rights, dispute settlement, and implementation. Understanding this structure is the key to reading the document, because the substantive promises on arms, disappeared persons, and transitional justice are concentrated in Sections 4, 5 and 7.

The two signatories carried the authority of the state and the insurgency respectively: Girija Prasad Koirala signed as Prime Minister of the Government of Nepal, and Prachanda signed as chairman of the CPN (Maoist). The agreement was witnessed within Nepal's own political process rather than brokered by a foreign state, though the United Nations was later invited to monitor arms and armies.

The 10 sections, in order, are listed below. Section titles are translated from the Nepali original; wording varies slightly across English translations, but the sequence and subject matter are consistent across the UN Peacemaker text and other repositories.

Section 5 makes the ceasefire permanent and nationwide. Both sides pledged to stop all armed action, and the accord prohibits attacks, abductions, hostage-taking, forced recruitment, and the enforced disappearance of any person. It also commits both parties to cooperate to normalise daily life, remove roadblocks and 'bunkers', and end the culture of impunity and violence that had defined the conflict years.

Section 4 governs the management of the two armies and their weapons - the security heart of the accord. The Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA) combatants were to be confined in temporary cantonments, and their weapons stored in locked containers monitored by the United Nations. To keep the balance, the Nepal Army was to lock away an equal number of its own weapons under the same UN monitoring, while remaining in barracks. This principle was operationalised weeks later in the separate Agreement on the Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies (AMMAA), signed on 8 December 2006.

To implement this, the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) was established by UN Security Council Resolution 1740 (2007) and began work in January 2007. UNMIN registered Maoist combatants across seven main (divisional) cantonment sites and their satellite camps, and monitored the arms of both armies. Its verification exercise ultimately counted more than 19,000 combatants, and separately identified thousands who were disqualified as minors or late recruits.

One of the most cited humanitarian commitments in the CPA is the pledge on the disappeared. Both sides agreed to make public, within 60 days of signing, the real name, surname and address of people who were 'disappeared' or killed during the conflict, and to inform their family members. Enforced disappearance had been one of the most painful features of the war, with human rights bodies documenting well over a thousand cases, and this clause was meant to give families urgent answers.

The accord also addressed property seized during the insurgency. It committed the parties to return and rehabilitate government, public and private buildings, land and other property that had been captured or occupied during the conflict, and to allow displaced people to return home with dignity. Land seizure - especially of private holdings taken by Maoist cadres - remained one of the most contentious and slowly-implemented parts of the deal.

Section 7 anchors these commitments in human rights and international humanitarian law. It reaffirms the right to life, freedom from torture, freedom of expression and movement, and non-discrimination, and it gave the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) - a constitutional body - a role in monitoring compliance. The accord expressed respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions, signalling that the peace was to be rights-based, not merely a power-sharing bargain.

The CPA promised to confront the past through dedicated commissions rather than blanket amnesty. Clause 5.2.5 committed both sides to form, by mutual agreement, a high-level Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to investigate those who had seriously violated human rights or been involved in crimes against humanity, and to build an atmosphere of reconciliation in society. This is the seed of Nepal's entire transitional-justice architecture.

The accord also envisaged a National Peace and Rehabilitation Commission to handle relief, rehabilitation and reintegration for those displaced or harmed by the conflict, alongside relief for the families of the dead and disappeared. These bodies were meant to combine accountability with recovery - truth-telling for victims and practical support for communities uprooted by ten years of fighting.

Legislation took years. In 2014 (2071 BS) Parliament passed the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, and on 10 February 2015 two commissions were formed under it: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP). Together they received tens of thousands of complaints - roughly 63,000 to the TRC and about 2,700 to the CIEDP - but for years not a single case was recommended for prosecution.

The military and constitutional parts of the accord were largely delivered. The ceasefire held, UNMIN monitored the armies, the monarchy was abolished when Nepal was declared a federal democratic republic in 2008, a Constituent Assembly was elected, and a new Constitution of Nepal was promulgated in 2015. The integration and rehabilitation of Maoist ex-combatants was completed by 2012-2013, closing the cantonments.

The humanitarian and justice commitments, by contrast, remain the accord's unfinished business. The 60-day deadline to disclose the fate of the disappeared passed without full compliance, and thousands of families still await the truth. In February 2015 the Supreme Court struck down the amnesty provisions of the 2014 Act as unconstitutional, insisting that grave violations cannot be pardoned. The TRC and CIEDP have been repeatedly criticised as under-resourced and politically influenced.

Momentum returned in 2024. In August 2024 Parliament passed a long-awaited amendment to the transitional-justice law, welcomed cautiously by the UN and rights groups, and a committee was set up to appoint new commissioners. That appointment process itself proved contentious into 2025, with victims' groups protesting the transparency and independence of the selections. Whether Nepal finally delivers truth, justice and reparations - the core promise of Section 7 - is still being decided.

For the full, authoritative wording of every clause, readers should consult the original text hosted by UN Peacemaker (linked in the sources below).