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Drawing on contemporary research on the nature and treatment of trauma in psychology, neuroscience and the emerging field of art therapy, this article adopts a psychosocial approach to examine the role that the arts may play in assisting individuals and societies to recover from the trauma of violent conflict and contribute to the establishment of sustainable peace. Taking a broad understanding of the arts to include a range of creative endeavours, it primarily focuses on non-verbal art forms, including but not restricted to music, painting, sculpture, drawing and dance, as well as traditional arts and crafts. It demonstrates that many art forms have the potential to make specific contributions to the amelioration of conflict-related trauma by addressing pervasive non-verbal memories that typically stand outside the remit of more conventional psychosocial practices, such as truth-telling and storytelling. They do so, it argues, by providing a means of expressing, evoking, regulating and transforming the emotions in ways that allow individuals and societies to confront and acknowledge their violent pasts, develop supportive relationships in the present and draw on their creativity to imagine a better future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than a decade, Nepal has been undergoing a process of re-democratisation, its third transition to democracy since the 1950s. Among the key pillars of the new democratic regime has been the establishment of constitutionally guaranteed judicial independence. Focusing on the role of the Supreme Court in defining, overseeing, and adjudicating Nepal's transitional justice process, this article considers the extent to which judicial independence and empowerment have been achieved in Nepal's ongoing democratic transition. It argues that despite institutional measures designed to protect judicial independence and efforts by members of the Supreme Court to exercise independence in their judgments, Nepal's re-democratisation process has seen the erosion of judicial independence. In doing so, the article provides new insights into the relationship between institutional judicial independence and judicial empowerment during transitions to democracy, and highlights a significant area of concern for the achievement of democratic consolidation in Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]