Checking Trafficking
CHIEF Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya
inaugurated a one-day workshop on Trafficking in Human Beings (Control) Bill in Kathmandu
the other day emphasising on the need for making legal provisions as well as justice
system more effective and efficient in order to completely check human trafficking in
Nepal. Chief Justice Upadhyaya said that as Nepal has ratified several international
instruments concerning human rights, its laws must be commensurate with the international
and regional conventions. It is true that Nepal has expressed its full commitment to
protect and promote human rights in the international level by ratifying various
international as well as regional conventions. Accordingly, the laws concerning protection
and promotion of human rights of the people have been enacted. However, there are some
sectors where human rights situation is not satisfactory. Women in Nepal are still denied
rights in their parental property, which is the violation of fundamental human rights of
equality. Another area of blatant violation of human rights is the trafficking in women.
There is an organized gang behind human trafficking. Although Nepal has prohibited human
trafficking, thousands of women and children are trafficked to different countries for
various purposes. Even today, thousands of Nepalese women have been living very pitiable
life in different parts of India after they were trafficked and sold. Human rights
activists, security personnel and lawyers have attributed this to the loopholes in the
legal provisions and ineffective implementation of these legal provisions. The
perpetrators of human trafficking either easily escape the punishment or come out after
few months in jail because of these loopholes. Human trafficking is a heinous crime, which
must be dealt very strictly. Unless the perpetrators are severely punished, human
trafficking cannot be completely checked. Thus, stricter laws are absolutely necessary to
prevent human trafficking in Nepal. Keeping this in mind, His Majesty’s Government
has already registered a Bill in Parliament Secretariat for approval to deal with the
issue in a stricter manner. However, one thing must be borne into mind that laws alone are
not sufficient to completely check human trafficking as several other factors are also
responsible for this, especially girl trafficking in Nepal. Poverty and ignorance are
other reasons behind this crime. Apart from the strict implementation of the legal
provision, social campaign needs to be launched to generate awareness against the crime of
human trafficking.
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