SOUTH ASIAN ASSOCIATION FOR REGIONAL CO-OPERATION (SAARC) (Special Reference to Its Action for Combating Trafficking in Women And Children)

Introduction

International relations refer to the relationship among countries in many aspects like economy, polity, art, literature, technology and many more. At present time, international relation has become the inevitable aspect of each and every country. So to further facilitate the international relations, international organizations play important role. American scholar Kelsen defines international organization as the organized international community which establishes many organs to fulfill the needs of international communities.[1] International organizations are very effective platform where the problems related to international life (for example environment, public health, security, finance, education etc.) can be discussed and the solution can be resolved.

Assistance provided through international organizations are proved to complement to the bilateral and multilateral assistance among nations.[2] That is the reason each of the country of the world has been the member of at least one international organization and up to 2005, the total number of international organizations has reached 191.[3]

South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC), is the association of eight sovereign countries[4] of South Asia established in order to protect and ensure the sovereignty, territory and solidarity and socio-economic and cultural development of each nations through the regional assistance from each other. At present SAARC is actively working according to its objectives and is effectively contributing in promoting the peace and prosperity among its member nations and is maintaining sound relation with other international organizations too. Besides it has its keen concern in addressing the social problems that challenge the society. Illegal trafficking of women and children has become the most challenging problem for whole world and South Asia is the most known for this. So SAARC is very much concerned about this problem and is taking necessary steps to combat the trafficking of women and children of South Asia.

Introduction and Features of SAARC:

South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) is an association of eight sovereign nations of South Asia to establish a meaningful co-operation among its member nations to ensure peace, freedom, social justice and economic prosperity.[5] The success stories of European Union (EU) and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)[6] made the foreign secretariats of seven countries discuss on the essence of similar type of organization in South Asia too. So the idea was generated in 1980 while the first meeting was held in Colombo in April 1981. The meeting of September in Delhi in 1983 identified five broad areas for regional co-operation[7]. The credit behind the establishment of SAARC goes to then President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman as he had proposed the concept of South Asian Regional Co-operation. However it is undeniable fact that then King Birendra of Nepal has announced for the regional assistance for the utilization of water resources of Nepal in 1977 A.D.

SAARC remains as the national organ of each member nations and every organ of it except the Secretariat works in conference system and anonymous voting is necessary for any decision. The bilateral disputes don’t fall under its jurisdiction and every member nations are equipped with Veto. It is a fully closed organization and no country other than the seven member countries can join the association and if any one of the nations quitted the association, the whole association is meant to be finished.  

The First Summit of the seven nations was held in Dhaka (Bangladesh) in 8 December 1985 and South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) was fixed to be the permanent name of the association. Up to date, 15 SAARC Summits are already held. Nepal also has organized Third Summit in 1987 (Kathmandu) and Eleventh Summit in 2002 (Kathmandu)

Objectives of SAARC:

There are many objectives of SAARC. Some of the major objectives of SAARC as stated by the Secretariat of SAARC [8]are as follows:

a.     To promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia.

b.     To accelerate the economic, social and cultural prosperity of all individuals and provide full opportunity to realize their full potentiality.

c.     To promote and strengthen the collective self-reliance among the member countries.

d.     To contribute to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another’s problem.

e.     To strengthen co-operation among other developing countries and also among themselves to discuss on the matters of common interests.

f.      To co-operate with international and regional organizations with similar aims and purpose.

Trafficking of Women and Children:

According to The United Nations, “Trafficking refers to the recruitment, transportation, purchase, sale, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons: by threat, use of violence, abduction, use of force, fraud, deception, or coercion (including abuse of authority or of a position of vulnerability),or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another or debt bondage, for the purpose of exploitation which includes prostitution or for placing or holding such person, whether for pay or not, in forced labor or slavery-like practices, in a community other than the one in which such person lived at the time of the original act described”.[9]

According to SAARC Convention for Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, 2002, “Trafficking” means the moving, selling or buying of women and children for prostitution within and outside a country for monetary or other considerations with or without the consent of the person subjected to trafficking.

Status of Trafficking in Women and Children in South Asia:

The problem of trafficking in women and children is an issue of serious concern over the years South Asia. Specially in South Asia, trafficking in women and children for various purposes. According to UNIFEM and UNDP, 35 lakh women and youths are trafficked yearly in Asia and 1 lakh in South Asia alone.[10] Economic factors such as poverty and unemployment, social and cultural causes including low status of women and girl child, culture of violence, migration, open boarder, attraction for the urban life can be listed as major factors as the root causes of trafficking in women and children in South Asia. Further, there is increasing demand of children for trafficking for the purpose of exploitation in factories in domestic work, begging, camel joking and even for the sale of organ. The incidences of cross border trafficking, especially women and children trafficked between India-Bangladesh and India-Nepal[11] has been growing in recent years.

SAARC’s Concern about Trafficking in Women and Children:

Realizing the alarming problem of trafficking of women and children, SAARC has always concern in controlling it. So in a course of time, it has brought about many declarations and convention to stop it. Some of the major initiatives are as follows:

SAARC Children Decade 1990:[12]

Under this declaration, many proposals were approved to control the illegal trafficking in girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Rawalpindi Declaration 1996(August 20-22, Pakistan):

The declaration had made every of its member nations either by the individual effort or collective efforts, adopt administrative as well as legal provisions to combat every type of illegal trafficking in children for sexual exploitation. And also the declaration included that effective measures would be taken by the association to rehabilitate the victims.

SAARC Male Summit 1997:

In this Summit, the serious concern over the trafficking and sexual exploitation in girls was identified. And a commitment was made where the SAARC member nations as a whole decided to take action to overcome this problem. For that a technical committee  for making a regional protocol was decided to be formed.

10^th SAARC Summit and Proposal to Combat Prostitution 1998:

It was the first time where the Human Rights Activists of SAARC raised the issue of trafficking in women and children to be the main agenda of SAARC. And in this Summit, the draft of the regional protocol to combat trafficking in women and children was made.

 SAARC Convention for Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, 2002 :

SAARC Convention for Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, 2002 was a pioneer convention which brought a significant and substantive progress in the fight against trafficking. Although the efforts to draft a convention to combat trafficking began at 9^th SAARC Summit in 1997, it was adopted in 2002 recognizing problems of trafficking and detailing the measures that the member states should take to trafficking of women and children.[13]

Some of the major features of the convention are as follows:

·      The trafficking in women and children for the purpose of prostitution was regarded incompatible with the dignity and honor of human beings and violation of basic human rights.

·      Trafficking in any form was made an offence under their respective criminal law and such an offence was made punishable by appropriate penalties. The person who are engaged directly or indirectly are subjected to punishment.[14]

·     The confidentiality of the child and women victims is maintained and that they are provided appropriate counseling.[15]

·       Article VIII of the Convention states about the Measures to prevent and interdict trafficking in women and children. It states that the state parties to the Convention should provide sufficient means, training and assistance to their respective authorities to enable them to effectively conduct inquiries, investigations and prosecution of offences under this Convention. Besides it also talks about the sensitization of judiciary and law enforcement sectors to combat the factors that encourage the trafficking.       The exchange of the information regarding the agencies, institutions and individuals who are involved in trafficking in the region and the modes of trafficking would take between the member countries.

·       Article VII of the convention states that such trafficking would be regarded as extraditable offences in any extradition treaty and it can be concluded between any parties to the convention.

·      The Convention encourages recognized non-governmental organizations in efforts aimed at prevention, intervention and rehabilitation, including through the establishment of protective homes or shelters for providing suitable care and maintenance for the victims of trafficking.

Activities and Achievements:

In the recent years, various initiatives and programs in the countries of South Asia have begun addressing the problem of human trafficking, especially in women and children. Governments are becoming active, although most programs are carried out by non-governmental organizations (NGOs)[16] with a focus on local communities. Concerted efforts have also been undertaken at the sub-regional level to combat human trafficking in South Asia. The scope of the Convention is to promote co-operation amongst member States to effectively deal with various aspects of prevention, interdiction and suppression of trafficking in women and children; repatriation and rehabilitation of victims of trafficking, and preventing the use of women and children in international prostitution networks, particularly where the SAARC member countries are the countries of origin, transit and destination. The member countries have also committed themselves to develop a Regional Plan of Action and to establish a Regional Task Force against Trafficking. In October 2004, all the eight governments in South Asia adopted Five Points for further actions as urgent imperatives. They are as follows:

i.               Conduct better research into the demand that stops sexual abuse and exploitation of children, including the abuse that results from home grown demand.

ii.              Reinforce protection measures through the adoption of National Action Plans covering sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking.

iii.            Update the data of trafficked women and children with information on age, gender and nationality that would allow better identification of national trends and indicators.

iv.       Work with NGO, UN and multilateral partners to develop indicators of impact and effectiveness and identify successful initiatives and good practices.

v.        Work with children and young people to ensure their insights in policy formation and actions.

Conclusion

SAARC has always been on the path to co-ordinate interventions against trafficking at the sub-regional level. It is undeniable fact that the issue becomes the center of debate in each SAARC Summits and the member nations agree to work on the modalities to implement the provisions of the existing SAARC Convention[17]. However, the definition of trafficking provided in the Convention only focuses on prostitution. There are several causes behind  trafficking of women and children.[18] Not only this, the Convention does not become an instrument to restrict or control the voluntary movement of women from one country to another.[19] And the most sensitive part of the action i.e. updated data of trafficked women and children with information on age, gender and nationality hasn’t been included as any of the obligation of the member nations that would allow better identification of national trends and indicators of trafficking. It is still very hard to find the authentic trend and indicators of trafficking in women and children due to the variety in data of many organizations. One of the urgent imperative of the Regional Task Force against Trafficking  hasn’t been implemented yet.

Though the convention is limited in its definitional understanding of the problem, however its importance lies in the fact that for the first time there is a regional treaty addressing trafficking. This in effect is an official acceptance of the regional nature of the problem and creates an important opening for dealing with the problem from within the member nations. It is the good aspect that by criminalizing the trafficking in women and children realizing it as an alarming problem, all the member nations have formulated strict laws for preventing and punishing such types of activities. This issue has been the centre of focus in every SAARC Summits. However, the Summits in recent years have included the issue of “Trafficking in Persons” rather than “Trafficking in Women and Children” which also has a broader scope. We know that trafficking can be seen as a moral issue, human rights issue, labour issue, migration issue, poverty and development issue, gender issue, public health issue and many more. So at this situation, trafficking cannot be solved in isolation rather various approaches from the regional efforts are necessary to address the various scopes of trafficking of persons. States should continue to ratify international instruments, regional and bilateral agreements to ensure and facilitate the prosecution of offenders, irrespective of nationality and location, and seek international cooperation for assistance and exchange of information on good practices against trafficking.

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[1] International Institutions, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law(including SAARC, Gopal Sharma, Pairabil Prakashan, 13.)

[2] SAARC A Profile, A publication of the SAARC Sectariat, Kathmandu, 2.

[3] International Institutions, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law(including SAARC, Gopal Sharma, Pairabil Prakashan,21

[4] Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afganistan

[5] SAARC A Profile, A publication of the SAARC Sectariat, Kathmandu, 1.

[6] The member countries of the United Nations Organization can establish regional organizations (article 52 of the UN Charter)

[7] Agriculture, Rural Development, Telecommunication, meteorology and health.

[8] SAARC A Profile, A publication of the SAARC Sectariat, Kathmandu, 2.

[9] The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,Article 3.

[10]    Gorkhapatra, 2063/2/9

[11] According to the report of Universal Human trafficking by the Foreign Ministry of America, women from Nepal in a number of 10000-15000 are being sold in foreign countries.(Nagarik National Daily, 2066/03/04)

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[13] Status and Dimensions of Trafficking with Nepalese Context, Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS) and United Nation Development Fund for Women(UNIFEM), 87

[14] Article III of the SAARC Convention for Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, 2002

[15] Article V. Article IX of the Convention talks about the legal counseling, job trainings and health services facilities to the victims.

[16] Non-Governmental Organizations like Maiti Nepal, CelRRd (Centre for Legal Research and Resource Development, Alliance Against Trafficking of Women in Nepal(AATWIN), National Network Against Girls Trafficking( NNAGT) etc )

[17] The Colombo Statement on Children of South Asia(Colombo, 10^th July 2009) has declared the member state committed to the SAARC Social Charter, the SAARC Convention on Regional Arrangements for the Promotion of Child Welfare, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Optional Protocols; SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution.

[18] The causes of trafficking women and children especially in India from Nepal according to CeLRRd(Center for Legal  Research and Resource Development) are: for the sake of human organs, sexual exploitation, sex slaves, camel jockey, baby firms, illegal workers, bonded labors, business of adoption etc.

[19] Article 6 and 7 of  Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty 1950, citizens of both the countries can settle, establish industries in either of the countries and are treated as the ordinary citizens by both the governments.