Conference on sexual minorities kicks off in Kathmandu

 Lalitpur, Sept. 27

The two-day 'Born with pride' conference to promote conversation with sexual minorities and concerned stakeholders kicked off here on Tuesday.

The primary objective of the conference is to engage in conversation with multiple stakeholders such as LGBTQIA plus communities, politicians, activists, academicians, lawyers and civil society, said the organisers.

It also aims to provide a platform and visibility for the queer community, build a network of different stakeholders working for the rights of the queer community, and exchange knowledge about successful projects and learn from the stories of political representation, achievements, challenges and resilience.

The conference is being organised by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) Regional Office South Asia in collaboration with Samriddhi Foundation, Embassy of Germany in Kathmandu and German Nepal Friendship Association.

They said that Nepal was chosen as a venue for the conference because of its progress in protecting the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual community.

Following a ruling from the Supreme Court of Nepal in 2007 that ordered the government to recognise a third gender category based on an individual's 'self-feeling', the latter included it in the voter rolls in 2010, citizenship documents in 2013, passports in 2015 and federal census 2021. Activists term it as a significant achievement for the country and queer community.

About 21 speakers and eight keynote speakers from seven south Asian countries as well as Europe and Tibetan community are attending the event.

There are five interactive sessions during the conference to discuss multiple topics like queer in power, inclusive digital spaces for queer persons, issue of legal recognition, role of media, acceptance and integration of queer persons in civil society. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 28 September 2022. 

'Punish sex buyers, not victims'

Kathmandu, Feb. 4: Swedish ambassador at large for combating trafficking in persons Per-Anders Sunesson has called for punishing those who are involved in buying the women or labourers, not the victims.

“Punishment should not be given to those who sell their body or labour because most of the times they were forced to join the prostitution or leave their home country so as to provide cheap labour service,” he told The Rising Nepal.

Sunesson came to Nepal on a three-day visit to advance and strengthen the gender perspective in international efforts to combat the human trafficking by encouraging the countries to adopt legislation that criminalises the demand for sexual services similar to that of Swedish legislation

He said that the countries that were receiving labourers and sex workers had greater role in combating trafficking by discouraging the traffickers to supply children and women.

“We see more trafficking taking place in Europe and developed nations from the developing world, and it is thriving all over the world. One of the major steps in curbing this crime is to stop the demand for women and girls in the sex industry,” he said.

“Countries must stop this by denying cheap labour and sex workers,” he said.

According to him, Germany alone had 400,000 legal prostitutes, most of them were from low-income countries like Bulgaria, Rumania and Lithuania.

He said that Sweden had laws effective for the last 17 years that put shame on the buyer of the trafficked women or girls not on the victims, and urged Nepal to adopt the similar measure.

“I am here to learn about the challenges that Nepal has been facing in curbing human trafficking. This trip was also to show support to the anti-trafficking efforts of the government of Nepal,” Sunesson said.

According to the ambassador, the government was doing a beautiful job along with many other stakeholders who come together to work against human trafficking.

“But, Nepal has a challenge in this regard. There is a strong pull effect from India and other countries in the Golf. Open border with the southern neighbour has made the human trafficking, especially girls, easy. 

(Published in The Rising Nepal Daily)