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SAARC to launch initiative to fight prostitution

Saisuresh Sivaswamy in Colombo

The standing committee of the foreign secretaries of seven SAARC nations, which met over the weekend in Colombo, achieved a major initiative when it agreed to a convention of trafficking in women for prostitution, an issue that touches most of the member-nations, either on the demand or supply side.

Indian officials said they have a worked out a final text of the convention which they expect to be finalised at the SAARC summit.

As per the convention, the crime of trafficking in women will be made a punishable crime in all member nations, for which stringent punishment will be meted out. Importantly, there will be a provision for the exchange of information among members, between the network of law enforcement agencies, provisions for extradition and mutual legal assistance among the member nations.

While the modalities for repatriation are being worked out, officials said they expect the matter to be finalised soon. Separately, a common fund for assisting in the rehabilitation of the victims of trafficking in women will be set up, with voluntary contributions from the member countries.

Expressing satisfaction at this development, Indian officials said they were pleased with the pace of negotiations on this issue.

Apart from this, the standing committee also considered the final report of the independent extra group on the integrated programme of action, which felt the number of technical committees be reduced from the 11 to a manageable six. The IEG was established by the mandate of the Ninth Male Declaration to undertake a comprehensive appraisal of SAARC, and to suggest ways to make the association more effective.

The standing committee felt that not only was resources to run the 11 technical committee a problem, but even their activities were found to be random and ad hoc. A restructuring, thus, officials said, would help in their finetuning.

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