Statement on Trafficking in Women and Children

We, the representatives of civil society networks and organizations from five South Asia Countries of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, would like to recognize and welcome the signing of the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution (hereby Convention). In doing so, you have shown your commitment to jointly combat a grave problem faced by the region directly and by addressing the root causes including poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.

We would also like to congratulate you for clearly outlining the measures to prevent and interdict trafficking in women and children; and the care, treatment, rehabilitation and repatriation of the victims. However, we would like to draw your attention to the following in the Convention and urge you to make the following amendments to further clarify its scope and mandate:

The title of the Convention limits it only to prostitution. We recommend that the title should be changed to Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children, so that it also covers other forms of exploitation of the trafficked women and children. The contradictions regarding the scope of the Convention should be removed to ensure greater clarity in its implementation.

For the full declaration please download the PDF attachment.