Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
02KATHMANDU2168
2002-11-15 10:47:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

U.S. GOVERNMENT ANTI-TRAFFICKING STRATEGY FOR

Tags:  KCRM PHUM SMIG PREL ELAB EAID KSEP ASEC KPAO SNAR NP 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 KATHMANDU 002168 

SIPDIS

AIDAC

STATE FOR G/TIP-SALLY NEUMANN AND SA/RA-DENISE MARSH;
USAID FOR ANE-LYNN SAULS AND EGAT-K. BLAKESLEE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM SMIG PREL ELAB EAID KSEP ASEC KPAO SNAR NP
SUBJECT: U.S. GOVERNMENT ANTI-TRAFFICKING STRATEGY FOR
NEPAL

REF.: STATE 219965

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 KATHMANDU 002168

SIPDIS

AIDAC

STATE FOR G/TIP-SALLY NEUMANN AND SA/RA-DENISE MARSH;
USAID FOR ANE-LYNN SAULS AND EGAT-K. BLAKESLEE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM SMIG PREL ELAB EAID KSEP ASEC KPAO SNAR NP
SUBJECT: U.S. GOVERNMENT ANTI-TRAFFICKING STRATEGY FOR
NEPAL

REF.: STATE 219965


1. Post hereby submits its anti-trafficking strategy as
requested reftel. This document provides information on
both ongoing and proposed programs and some results to
date.


2. Background of Situation

Nepal is a source country for trafficking of children and
women mainly to India. Internal Trafficking is on the
rise. Trafficking has been largely for prostitution,
domestic and other forms of exploitative labor, and in a
few cases for organ transplants.

Estimates on the extent and magnitude of Nepal's problem
of trafficking vary from source to source. A study done
by the International Labor Organization/International
Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO/IPEC) in
2001 estimates the number of trafficking victims to be
12,000 per year in contrast to the 5,000-7,000 quoted in
earlier publications. The Ministry of Women, Children and
Social Welfare (MWCSW) has identified twenty-six of
Nepal's seventy-five districts as trafficking-prone.
Those at highest risk of being trafficked are from the
hill ethnic groups and lower castes, but members of
higher castes have also been trafficked. As awareness and
surveillance activities in former source districts have
made trafficking from them more difficult, a geographic
shift in the activities of traffickers has been observed.
Girls as young as nine years old have been trafficked. An
increase in cross-border trafficking of boys for
exploitative labor has recently been discovered.

A recent study by Nepal's Integrated Institute for
Development Studies (IIDS) has identified forty-six NGOs
and twenty INGOs and Donors working in the area of
trafficking in and outside Kathmandu. Few organizations
provide rehabilitation services. Maiti Nepal has a Child
Protection and Women Rehabilitation Home in Kathmandu,
Hospices in Kakarbhitta and Jhapa, nine transit homes in

the five development regions of Nepal, and three
prevention homes in the central region. ABC Nepal runs
four transit homes in Janakpur (1),Biratnagar (1) and
Kathmandu (2). WOREC has a transit home in Dhanusha and
community safe houses in Udaipur. A Skill Training Center
is operated by MWCSW for the at risk groups.

Three networks actively working against trafficking are
the National Network Against Girl Trafficking (NNAGT),
Alliance Against Trafficking of Women in Nepal (AATWIN)
and Network against Trafficking of Women and Children in
Nepal (NATWC).


3. U.S. Government's Response

The U.S. Government began to assist anti-trafficking
efforts in Nepal in 1997. Programs supported have been
in the areas of Prevention, Protection and Prosecution.
U.S. Government Agencies supporting anti-trafficking
activities in Nepal are the U.S. Embassy Political
Section and Public Diplomacy Office, Peace Corps,
Department of Defense, Department of Labor, State
Department and U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID). A Mission Anti-Trafficking Committee has been
established to coordinate initiatives and to prepare the
annual Trafficking in Persons Report. In addition, USAID
has a South Asia Regional Program being implemented by
the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The program
implementing organizations (U.S. funded) are
International Labor Organization, World Education, Center
for Population and Development Activities (CEDPA),The
Asia Foundation (TAF),UNICEF and Nepali non-governmental
organizations. The U.S. Department of Labor, USAID and
he State Department fund these programs. The Mission
Anti-Trafficking Committee has developed the following
strategy to guide our efforts based on the three themes
of Prevention, Protection and Prosecution and is closely
integrated with the development assistance programs in
the area of democracy, governance and health. This
strategy includes both bilateral and regional activities.


4. Program Area: Prevention

Target audiences: The target audiences for prevention
programs are vulnerable women and children, government
anti-trafficking task force members, police, immigration
and law enforcement agencies, courts, influential
community groups, transport workers, elected women
leaders, students, teachers and adolescent girls.

The Mission's strategy places primary emphasis on
prevention. Priority activities under the prevention
program are increasing awareness of trafficking by target
groups and providing skill training to vulnerable groups
to make meaningful alternative life choices; training NGO
workers, community groups and police; conducting literacy
programs for out of school girls; researching and
studying migration policies; developing Information
Education Communication (IEC) messages and a national
communication strategy; establishing a Documentation
Information Communication (DIC) system; publishing
newsletters; strengthening advocacy and co-ordination
capacity of NGO network and improving the capacity of
district, municipality and village task forces to combat
trafficking.


5. Ongoing or Recently Completed Activities

Awareness raising and information dissemination: The Asia
Foundation (TAF) with current USAID assistance (2001-
2004) under its Democracy and Governance program is
conducting awareness activities in five districts
(Dhading, Nawalparasi, Banke, Chitwan and Dhanusha)
identified by the Ministry of Women Children and Social
Welfare (MWCSW) as trafficking prone districts. TAF's
local district partners are The Women Rehabilitation
Center (WOREC),Center for Legal Research and Resource
Documentation (CeLRRD),Center for Victims of Torture
(CVICT),Agro-forestry, Basic Health and Cooperatives,
Nepal (ABC Nepal),Maiti Nepal, Forum for Women, Law and
Development (FWLD),National Network against Girl
trafficking (NNAGT) and NGO Federation. NGO Federation
and TAF are facilitating meetings with district,
municipality and village level task forces that have
cross-sectoral composition for co-ordination to combat
trafficking. UNIFEM is working with various local
organizations to raise awareness. ILO/IPEC works through
'Vigilant Groups' at the community level in the bordering
districts of Parsa, Jhapa, Rupandehi and Banke to raise
awareness and share information on the content of ILO
Convention 182, Child Rights Convention (CRC) and other
trafficking related issues. Information regarding policy
issues is shared at the District Development Committee
level.

To educate Nepal's semi-literate audience, a comic book
'Our Decision, Our Protection' was published under the
Frights, Responsibility and Advocacy' component of
USAID's Women's Empowerment Program in April 2000.
200,000 copies of the book were distributed in the
seventy-five districts of the country.

The Public Diplomacy Office under the International
Visitor Program sponsors exposure visits of NGO and Govt.
professionals working on anti-trafficking issues to the
U.S., and invites speakers from the U.S. to provide
orientation to their Nepali counterparts on policies and
regulations adopted by the U.S. Government.


6. Research and Study: Nepal's Institute for Integrated
Development Studies (IIDS) has conducted a study entitled
'Status and Dimension of Trafficking within Nepal' with
UNIFEM support under the South Asia Regional Initiative
for Gender Equity (SARI/Equity) program in 2002. Under
the TAF supported activity, CeLRRD has completed a
baseline survey in five districts to assess the situati
on
of trafficking.

Research and studies for better understanding the problem
of trafficking have been conducted by ILO/IPEC in 2000-

01. The four studies are entitled 1. Trafficking in Girls
with Special Reference to Prostitution: A Rapid
assessment, 2. Trafficking and Sexual Abuse among Street
Children in Kathmandu, 3. Cross Border Trafficking of
Boys and 4. Internal Trafficking among Children Engaged
in Prostitution.


7. Development of IEC Messages and National IEC
Strategy: CEDPA has prepared a compendium of IEC
materials. From the review of the materials, a list of
messages and associated behaviors have been drafted that
will form the basis for developing the National IEC
Strategy. Establishment of a Documentation Information
Center (DIC) within the ministry to collect and
disseminate information on trafficking has enhanced the
capacity of Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare
(MWCSW). The aspect of information collection and
documentation has been strong but the present situation
of security has resulted in weak dissemination of
information, as the DIC is not easily accessible.


8. Publication of Newsletter: With the objective of
raising awareness on various topics, four volumes of the
'Combat' newsletter have been published by
MWCSW/ILO/CEDPA since 2000, two more volumes will be
published within 2002. The focus topics of the newsletter
are health, education, legislation and enforcement,
income generation, and employment generation and
promoting anti trafficking behaviors. Similarly NNAGT
publishes a regular newsletter to disseminate information
related to trafficking activities.


9. Training and Capacity Building: Under the current
TAF program, specific training is being provided to
selected target groups. WOREC provided rights based
training to senior level staff and community level
trainers of partner organizations to improve knowledge
within communities and among government personnel of the
problem of trafficking in their respective districts. A
training manual on 'Safe Migration Alternatives' was
prepared in consultation with Ministry of Labor and
Transportation (Molt) and overseas employment agencies.
Training is being provided to partner organizations using
this manual to enable them to deal/orient potential
migrants on issues related to safe migration.


10. Strengthening Advocacy and Co-ordination Capacity of
NGO Networks: Training and orientation provided regularly
by NNAGT is strengthening advocacy and co-ordination
capacity of the NGO networks and its members to combat
trafficking.

In June 2000, UNIFEM initiated the formation of the South
Asia Forum against Human Trafficking (SAFAHT) to
strengthen the regional network. The second regional
meeting of SAFAHT was conducted in May 2001.


11. Improving the Capacity of District, Municipality and
Village Task Forces: Nepal's District, Municipality and
Village Task Forces (DTF, MTF, VTF) are being
strengthened for cross-sectoral co-ordination to combat
trafficking by implementing/enforcing the existing
National Plan of Action. ILO/IPEC is working with the
DTF, MTF and VTFs in four districts, Jhapa, Parsa,
Rupandehi and Banke and TAF in the selected five
districts.


12. Literacy Programs: World Education initiated the
Girls Access to Education (GATE) program (2001-2002) to
prevent trafficking by educating "out of school"
adolescent girls and preparing them for the challenges of
womanhood. 7,500 "out of school" girls from seven
districts were the target audience of this program. An
impact evaluation of the GATE program in the first year
showed a considerably high percentage of increase in
knowledge amongst the girls regarding trafficking and
about preventive measures. USAID/Nepal has extended
support to GATE activity for another year through SO2
Health Program.

World Education, through its current 'Brighter Future
Program' aims to provide literacy to 17,000 children in
the ag group of 10-14 who are engaged in the 'worst form
of child labor' and 65,000 'children at risk' in twenty-
two districts of Nepal over a period of four years (2002-
2006). World Education will be working in the same
districts as ILO/IPEC for their Time Bound Program (2000-
2005)to eliminate child labor. Trafficking is one of the
focus areas of this program. ILO/IPEC initiated provision
of non-formal and formal education in 45 Village
Development Committees (VDCs) of three districts, which
are Chitwan, Makwanpur and Nawalparasi. The target
audience for the awareness program through education is
4,500 school children and equal number of adults.


13. Budget

Approximately US DOLS 1,233,816 has been obligated for
the prevention programs by USAID/Nepal and Washington.
UNIFEM is funded under the South Asia Regional Initiative
for Gender Equality (SARI/Q) programs of USAID and has a
funding for approximately US DOLS 3.1 million for the
whole region. World Education has been granted US DOLS
4,000,000 in 2002 by Department of Labor for expanding
literacy and other skill development programs for
occupational reintegration. ILO/IPEC has been granted US
DOLS 5,000,000 in 2002 by Department of Labor to
implement the Time Bound Program.


14. Proposed Activities
Some of the proposed activities for prevention are
continuation of awareness programs on trafficking and
safe migration, setting up information booths for migrant
workers, setting up micro-enterprise activities for
meaningful employment opportunities for at risk groups, a
regional study on demand and supply for trafficking, and
support to strengthen the Government's Village and
District Task forces. Estimated cost for these programs
is DOLS 1,002,000. ILO/IPEC will replicate the ongoing
activities in four cluster districts of the eastern
region in the near future.


15. Indicators for Program Monitoring

- Mechanisms for cooperation on anti trafficking
activities between government and NGOs established and
operational.
- Sustainable NGO networks working against
trafficking.

- Increased anti-trafficking advocacy and services by
organizations and networks already mobilized around other
women's and children's issues.

- Increased knowledge of trafficking and preventive
measures by target groups.


16. Program Area: Protection (Rescue/Rehabilitation)

Target audiences: The target audiences for protection
(rescue/ rehabilitation) are victims of trafficking, some
at risk girls and women, police, and NGOs assisting
victims.

Priority and funded activities for protection are
sensitization programs for service providers and law
enforcing government agencies, support to transit homes,
research-study on best practices for alternative
livelihood strategies and training for gainful employment
opportunities.


17. Ongoing or Recently Completed Activities

Sensitization Program: UNIFEM and UNICEF sensitize police
at border crossings in handling rescued/repatriated
victims. US Embassy/State and the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) conducts anti-fraud training
for immigration and customs officers. The last training
was conducted in 2001 and included a presentation on
trafficking by ABC Nepal. Other governmental officials,
NGO representatives and third-country Embassy personnel
also attended. NGOs and community groups have been
sensitized to the issues of HIV/AIDS and its relation to
trafficking and the need to rehabilitate returnees of
trafficking under USAID/Nepal's Health program.


18. Training: CVICT has provided training to strengthen
the capacity of NGOs providing rehabilitation and
counseling for trafficking victims, abused women and
children, and at risk groups. CVICT has also assisted
partner organizations to set up a case study
documentation system and establish local referral
practices. UNICEF is supporting training of the police
for investigative crime scene management. ILO/IPEC
sup
ported developing the curriculum for the counseling
training and is coordinating efforts to take this manual
to the regional level. ILO/IPEC will build capacity of
NGOs to promote national standardized guidelines on
childcare facilities.


19. Research-study: WOREC/TAF are conducting a study on
best practices for alternative livelihood strategies.
UNIFEM/Sarthak carried out a need assessment study to
review the existing status of socio-psycho counseling
expertise in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.


20. Gainful Employment Opportunities: UNIFEM has
supported 'Shakti Samuha' (a group of fifteen returned
victims) with occupational reintegration by assisting in
the establishment of a photocopier business center.
Three members of 'Shakti Samuha' are undergoing skill
training to handle the business efficiently. Maiti Nepal
and TAF are working for an effective scheme for job
placement of returnees. World Education under the
'Brighter Future Program' will have a component on
occupational reintegration. ILO/IPEC will provide
proffessionalised training to the affected group for
occupational reintegration.


21. Transit homes: ILO/IPEC has supported Maiti Nepal to
establish transit homes in Kakarbhitta and Bhairahawa.
UNIFEM has supported ABC Nepal to establish a transit
home in Delhi. International Organization on Migration
(IOM) has supported ABC Nepal and WOREC to establish
transit homes in Kathmandu and Dhanusha. Besides these
organizations 'Karuna Bhawan' and 'Shanti Rehabilitation
Center' also assist the returnees.


22. Budget

Approximately US DOLS 112,000 has been obligated for the
ongoing programs by USG funded UNIFEM program.


23. Proposed Activities

Proposed protection activities (rescue/rehabilitation)
are continuation of the sensitization program, operating
the counseling program, and enhancing the capability of
the rescued girls for meaningful employment through
occupational training and job placement. Estimated cost
for the proposed programs is US DOLS 350,000.


24. Indicators

- Innovative rehabilitation and reintegration
strategies ready for replication

- More and higher counseling services available to
trafficking survivors

- Increased employment options for trafficking
survivors


25. Program area: Prosecution

Target audiences: The target audiences for prosecution
are law enforcement agencies.

Priority funded activities under prosecution are
technical assistance and advocacy for adoption of a new
anti-trafficking law, improved enforcement of legislation
and creation of missing persons' components in the Nepal
National Police information and criminal investigation
system. The other activities are sharing information with
destination country police, prosecutors' workshop on case
management and successful prosecution, improvement of
court procedures to protect victims.


26. Ongoing Activities

Advocacy for Adoption of New Anti-Trafficking Law: TAF
and UNIFEM/FWLD reviewed the existing anti-trafficking
law, provided recommendations for amendment and advocated
and lobbied for the passage of the new anti-trafficking
law. The Lower House of Parliament passed the bill
introduced by the MWCSW in the Twenty First Parliamentary
Session.


27. Improved Enforcement of Laws: UNICEF supports
training for basic investigative and crime scene
management techniques for prosecutors and judges,
prosecutor's workshop on case management and successful
prosecution, and improvement of court procedures to
protect victims. UNIFEM supports initiatives to share
information with destination country police.


28. Missing Person's Inventory: A missing person's
inventory is being created by the Nepal National Police
Information and Criminal Investigation system with UNICEF
support.


29. Budget
Approximately US DOLS 75,000 has been obligated for the
ongoing activities by INL/UNIFEM.


30. Proposed Activities

Proposed activities for effective pr
osecution are
training on new legislation for effective enforcement,
establishment of improved court structures for protection
of the victims and strengthening the capacity of women
cells of police and training at border crossings. The
estimated cost of approximately US DOLS 220,000 for the
proposed programs has been provided by INL. UNICEF has
been contacted regarding implementation of the program.


31. Indicators

- Legal framework that better protects the rights of
women and girls

- Increase in the number of traffickers arrested

- Increase in the number of traffickers convicted


32. Conclusion

U.S. Government Agencies in Nepal are highly committed to
the prevention of trafficking and protection of its
victims. Comprehensive programs have been initiated to
reduce vulnerability of women and children from being
trafficked by raising awareness, increasing
literacy/educational level and providing skill training
for occupational reintegration. Counseling capacity has
been improved through training and best rehabilitation
practices are being replicated for the protection of
victims. Legal bodies, Government task forces at
different levels, and law enforcing agencies are being
trained/oriented for proper enforcement of laws and
policies and to take necessary actions against the
traffickers. Similarly, existing laws and policies are
being reviewed for necessary amendments.

However, minimum coordination amongst supporting agencies
and lack of unity among NGOs is an obstacle to achieving
desired result. Lack of comprehensive baseline study is
another hindrance to measuring the success of activities
implemented. Other factors that provide a nurturing
ground to trafficking of women and children in Nepal are
weak law enforcement system and high level of corruption
among law enforcement bodies. A lack of political will to
place the issue in the national priority agenda, the open
border with India and the need for a study regarding the
demand (India) and supply (Nepal, Bangladesh) aspects of
the problem are other dimensions to the issue. The
holistic approach and programs supported by the USG in
Nepal and the region are expected to address these gaps.

MALINOWSKI