Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission Helpless

Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission Helpless

Commission Lacking a Perspective on Human Trafficking

12 June 2007

Mohan Nepali, Kathmandu:

Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today invited journalists from print and electronic media to gain input so as to include it in their annual report on women and child trafficking. The NHRC’s subcommittee especially assigned with the responsibility of preparing an accurate annual report on the latest status of women and child trafficking organized a discussion program with journalists. The subcommittee members expressed their helplessness in preparing an annual report on the issue of women and child trafficking.

Journalist participating in the discussion program said they had several practical problems while going to fields for objective information on women and child trafficking. They faced threats from criminal gangs protected by the state. They pointed out that they would not be able to publish or broadcast so many things due to security problems and mental threats.

One of State-owned Radio Nepal’s journalists said that NGOs working on trafficking issues should provide their researched information to national media.

Vidhu Prakash Kayastha, UNDP Communication Officer, stressed on the initiative of journalists. He expressed the view that journalists should not hesitate to seek financial help in research about women and child trafficking issues. Kayastha expresses his dismay at how journalists and administration are taking the trafficking cases only as crimes. He stressed that such issues be looked into from human rights perspective. Bharat Sharma, affiliated with the Rajdhan national daily, said that concerned institutions and police officers do not provide ample material for media coverage.

It is really embarrassing that Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission, a fully constitutional state body, should lack a perspective on the issues of women and child trafficking. It has not had any national approach to conduct a comprehensive research into the overall situation of women and child trafficking in Nepal.

However, the interaction with journalists in the process of preparing a report on women and child trafficking is a positive thing. It is not possible to solve such serious problems of women and child trafficking without building up core concepts on the issues. If a national constitutional body only spends its budget and cannot even conduct a comprehensive research in order to establish facts and statistics on women and child trafficking, can Nepal’s lowest-paid individual journalists spend from their pockets on in-depth reporting on trafficking issues?

World estimates indicate that more than 800 thousand human beings are trafficked or sold every year. Slave industry remains a multibillion business with full political protection. US officials admit that almost 15,000 human beings are annually trafficked into the USA to cater to slave trade. The scale of this multinational smuggling business has not been exactly defined. As countries have not been able to implement their human rights commitments, many other political and socio-economic issues converge into this trafficking problem.

Slavery is living in shadows not only in a country like Nepal but also in major democracies such as America, England and India. Such a globally networked smuggling trade, with chances of multiple crimes, is not carried out by ordinary wage-earners. There are some WHOS to be identified and punished.

As far as media role against women and human trafficking is concerned, media’s editorial authorities need to have their own strategies and editorial policies on the issues. Mere coverage of incidents and speech programs would not serve society much. Exposing political characters to the grassroot population and pressurizing on state mechanisms to punish them as per the nation’s laws would equally be important.

Besides, political parties and their sister organizations need to be mobilized against the local contractors of trafficking. On the one hand, good politicians should fight bad politicians at state level and on the other, local units of political forces must be active against the local criminals. Coordination of people’s pressure groups with media can be very productive in this context.

Equally unforgettable in this respect is the need to fight the all-pervasive corruption among law enforcement units of the country. Corrupt character is a permanent barrier in human life. This barrier can be fought with only with good character or with the promotion and consolidation of good character.

ENDS

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