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PROGRESS SINCE 2000
Although the entertainment industry and its correlative, the
sex industry, continue to grow without restriction, government
and civil society have made some important efforts in legislation,
policy and action since the year 2000 to address the impacts
of the entertainment and sex industry, and to ensure the rights
and well-being of working girls and women, and their children.
2000
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 2056
This act made important amendments and changes in the
Labour Act 1991, including raising the age of a child from 14
to 16, and forbidding the use of children in ‘riskful occupation
and work’, which includes, among others, work in hotels,
casinos, restaurants, bars and pubs. The definition of hazardous
work does not include involvement of children in prostitution.
2001
Code of Ethics for the Nepal Medical Council, 2057
This code of ethics made physicians responsible for confidentiality
of information about their patients, including victims of sexual
violence and people living with HIV/AIDS.
National Plan of Action for Combatting Against
Trafficking in Women and Children
The trafficking NPA is based on the NPAs of other countries
in the 1990s, and focuses on ‘trafficking’ to the exclusion of
addressing the broader forms and causes of exploitation. The
2010 Terre des hommes www.tdh.ch 78
primary weaknesses of the plan are its vague strategy, its
failure to clarify mechanisms for its implementation, its exclusion
of civil society actors, and its reliance for implementation on
Task Forces at the district and local levels which lack the
resources or mandate to carry out anti-trafficking programmes.
In consequence, implementation of the NPA by the government
has been generally ineffective at the district and local levels,
and NGOs and bilateral donors have continued to conduct
the majority of anti-trafficking interventions. Gaps in legislation
are summarized in general terms in the NPA, and are insufficient
to address areas in which children are not protected by law.
The NPA does not address linkages of sexual exploitation
with child labour or non-commercial child sexual abuse.
2002
Sapana Pradhan Malla for FWLD v. GoN, Writ no.
56/2058 of 2058
In this key case challenging the lower penalty for those who
rape a ‘prostitute’, the Supreme Court held that sex work is
like any other profession, and that no discrimination could be
made on the basis of sex work.
11 th Amendment to the Country Code (Muluki Ain)
2058
This landmark action liberalized Nepal’s draconian laws on
abortion, as well as strengthening women’s equal property
rights, and increasing the punishment for sexual harassment
and rape, paedophilia, child marriage, bigamy, and marriage by
misrepresentation. However, the bill does not directly prohibit
bigamy and does not clarify the existing narrow definition of rape.