Trafficking in Women, Children
Call to expand scope of Saarc convention
Bring changes to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) convention on preventing and combating trafficking in women and children for prostitution to expand the convention's scope and definition.
Bangladesh would recommend this at the next Saarc summit, said State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury yesterday.
She was addressing a conference on “Mobility, migration and trafficking in children and adolescents, a call for convergence in action” organsied by SANJOG, Bangladesh at LGED Bhaban in the city.
“It is needed to expand the scope and definition of the Saarc convention (enacted in 1987) to include trafficking in women for other exploitative purposes such as labour trafficking,” she said.
She recommended the home ministry to take effective measures to ease the process of Rescue, Rehabilitation, Repatriation and Integration (RRRI), so that the victims do not face difficulty in returning homes.
She emphasised the necessity of creating laws across the region to a voluntary fund to support the rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficking victims.
Home Ministry Joint Secretary Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, who is in-charge of RRRI taskforce, said the government approved the anti-human trafficking act, 2011 that will be enacted in the parliament very soon.
Salma Ali, executive director of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association, Ravindra Patil, deputy commissioner of department of women and child development and member repatriation at Maharashtra in India, and Mou Bhattacharya, a member of RRRI taskforce in Paschimbanga, also spoke at the occasion.
A documentary film titled 'The Return' on the return of four Bangladeshi young women back to their homes after their harrowing experience in India was screened in the programme.
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