Article 29, clause 3 of the present constitution of Nepal states: No person shall be subjected to human trafficking or bonded labor, and such an act shall be punishable by law. Furthermore, in clause 5 of the same article, it is mentioned that: Any act contrary to clause 3 shall be punishable by law and the victim of such an act shall have the right to compensation.
“Human traffickers take advantage of the weak implementation of human trafficking laws existent in Nepal. Moreover, the prevailing law on human trafficking in Nepal, fails to recognize and prosecute the crime of human trafficking committed in Nepal itself. Many women are brought inside the country from other nations for sexual slavery,” says senior legal practitioner Meera Dhungana of Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD). FWLD has been involved in legal advocacy for proper implementation of human trafficking laws in the country, providing justice to the human trafficking survivors and creating awareness regarding such heinous crimes. Speaking with Nepalnews, Dhungana highlighted the prevalence of domestic violence and lack of property rights given to women as the major reasons why women are more likely to get lured and abducted by human traffickers.
A report published by Nepal’s Human Rights Commission estimates that around 35,000 people have been trafficked from Nepal in 2018. Among them, 15,000 women and 5,000 girls were victims of this crime. Not just in Nepal, women and children form the majority of victims of human trafficking in the whole of South Asia. Disturbingly, South Asian countries are being used as transit points by human traffickers worldwide. Therefore, there is a need of working together to collectively eliminate if not minimize this evil.
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