Meeting held to Disseminate Study on SAARC Convention Against Trafficking

International Organization for Migration (IOM) in close coordination with the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives and the Department of Immigration and Emigration, has hosted a national dissemination meeting titled SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution: Review and Current Status. The meeting, attended by representatives from relevant government bodies and NGOs, was inaugurated by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan Maniku, the Vice President of Maldives.

In his inaugural speech Dr.Waheed congratulated ADB (Asian Development Bank) and IOM for undertaking the review and congratulated the HRCM and Department of Immigration and Emigration for organizing the meeting. He expressed concern over the shortcomings in implementation of the Convention even though it has been in force for almost four years. He noted some of the limitations such as limited use of human rights perspectives, limited regional cooperation for law enforcement and insufficient data.

Dr.Waheed described the primary causes of human trafficking as greed and brutal disregard for human rights. Stating it as a worldwide multi-billion-dollar industry, the Vice President called upon the governments of SAARC countries to implement and enforce their national laws and to accept their obligations under the Convention.

As this report mentions Maldives as both a source and a destination country for human trafficking, Dr.Waheed expressed the government’s concern that this could be a growing problem in Maldives. Affirming the government’s willingness to take corrective measures in this regard, he said that actions such as improving the legal frame work and ratification of relevant conventions including the UN trafficking protocol and the UN Convention on the rights of migrant workers and their Families, must be carried out. The Vice President concluded his speech by expressing the need for all law enforcement agencies to work together in this.

The President of Human Rights Commission of the Maldives Ahmed Saleem also addressed the participants. In his speech, Saleem looked in to the history of combating human trafficking in the SAARC region. Describing it as a modern form of slavery, Saleem said that around 800,000 people become victims of Human Trafficking and most of them are Women and Children. Saleem said that “time has come for SAARC to do what is right on issues that must be of concern to its members such as updating conventions that are outdated and not in line with the present day thinking”. He said that, in this context it is time for SAARC to take a firm collective stand on combating human trafficking and begin addressing this serious issue with utmost importance.

In addition to this Ms. Nishat Chowdhry of IOM, Dhaka also made a statement on behalf of Ms. Rabab Fatima, Regional Representative for IOM South Asia. High Commissioners from some of the SAARC Member countries were also present at this meeting.

The purpose of the National Dissemination Meeting is to share the study on the review of the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution. The study supported by ADB, also suggested recommendations based on the gaps and limitations identified during the review. The study found that the Convention was limited in its scope of and that it lacked an independent treaty monitoring process. It further suggested based on the findings that there is need for greater cooperation among the SAARC member states and further uniformity in domestic trafficking definitions, laws and penalties.