Human trafficking

29 Jul 2010. I attended two-day’s workshop on human trafficking. The event was facilitated by Sapana Pradhan Malla. There were government, non-government, and some international organizations. The workshop mostly dwelt around the issues of conceptual clarity of ‘trafficking’, prevention, investigation, prosecution, and protection of survivors. The very characteristic nature of this problem demands a multi-sectored, multidisciplinary, and multi jurisdictional approach. I also raised that there should be a collaboration in between the professionals and academia to fully understand and solve the problem. Sadly, there is no proper coordination mechanism among different stakeholders to fight against this problem. Since this is a special problem for us, there is a need for a special body and mechanism to combat it.

Small Arms Contol

Attended one meeting organized by UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific. The police and NGOs presented papers on the damage from illicit small arms in the country. My concerns are not only the illicit weapons but also the licit weapons that have been used or abused in several violent criminal activities, suicides, and accidents. Even the security force personnel have been found guilty of miusing the weapons causing harms to the public. There is a need to control the licencing procedures and criterias to possess small arms--even to the police and military personnel.

bhagat singh of jantantrik terai madhes mukti party arrested by police

Education Program in Security Management

After my retirement from police service in 2006, my friends asked me to join a newly established Classic College International. I joined it as a promoter. I proposed that a new program on security management could be started in bachelor level. We designed the syllabi. We sought KU's approval to own the program. The Kathmandu University recognized the need for academic program on security issues to address with increasing concern for security of individuals, groups, and institutions in the society. The University undertook the program to invest on comprehensive approach to managing security function across all segments of the society. It responded to take up the challenge of preparing human resources for professionally managing security function in line with the evolving nature of and requirements in the security sector.
The Security Management curriculum was revised to enrich both theoretical and practical knowledge in security management while helping them to enhance the depth and breadth of their managerial capabilities. It contains the best and the latest in security management knowledge and practice to keep participants updated with the evolving nature and challenges of security management profession from the perspective of practitioners. The University offered first security program in Post Graduate Diploma in Security Management in 2007. Today the University offers two degree options: Post Graduate Diploma in Security Management (PGDSM) and Master in Security Management (MSM). PGDSM is a yearlong study program earning 30 credit hours in three terms of 14 weeks each. Two years study in six terms and completion of 55 credit hours earn MSM degree.
After nearly three years of experience, we are thinking of offering Diploma in Conflict and Peace Management from this coming October session. The syllabi development is in progresss. We are also seeking few visiting scholars for this course. We are seeking help of Fulbright Commission in this regard.

Envisioning Nepal 2030

24 June 2010. I attended a seminar today. The topic of the seminar was 'Envisioning Nepal 2030'--a kind on day dreaming. Several presentations were made on education, transportation, agriculture, security, science and technology, women empowerment, industry, and environment. Hard questionscame up during the sessions: How we are going to manage the education of children living in rural areas? There are 70 lakh children in the school level, only 3 lakh of them can be accommodated in higher education. What is going to happen to other 67 lakh children? Is our education system capable of helping individuals stand up independently? Which classes of people are contributing more in the national economy (government says that the main source of national economy is said to be remittance) the highly educated or the labor force working abroad? Why are we not competitive in the global market? Why there is no business community and university collaboration? Are road infrastructures helping development or destroying tourism? How much expenditure on security apparatus is enough? What are the alternatives? How we are going to cope with the global warming? etc.As for the security aspects I shared my thoughts that we need to socialize the security system not just reform security sector. For this, we need to start giving education on peace and security right from the primary level.

Security system improvement

What is wrong with our security system and what needs to be done?

1. Lack of comprehensive national security policy: National security policy involves major decisions about the security sector which affect the external and internal security of state and society. A national security framework sets out the government's approach to security and how such security is expected to be achieved. The national security system encounters difficulty in coordinating national policy and resources with state and local governments. We need to rewrite our national security policy and design security plan accordingly.

2. Inter-agency security mechanisms are inadequate: Inter-agency competition often begins early in strategy development. Ad hoc, un-integrated strategies are distressingly common products of the national security apparatus. The national security system demonstrates a disturbingly varying capacity to provide adequate and timely resources. Achieving adequate cooperation between civil and military actors in developing and implementing security policies is a persistent challenge. The organizational arrangements are misaligned with our security threats. There is a culture of empire building; different agencies are working without proper coordination. There is a tendency of vertical growth rather than horizontal. The resources and expertise of one agency is not used by others. Therefore, there is a need for integrated security structure.

3. The performance of the national security apparatus is inconsistent: The national security system fails to achieve systematic policy ends in a consistently efficient manner––inflicting corresponding security costs. Disorganized, nonexistent, or otherwise flawed strategy development decreases the system’s ability to achieve effective unity of effort and resourcing. The change in policy and practices as and when political parties come into power has adverse effects on the functions of security agencies. The system is ever-changing with the in-and-out of party in the power steering.

4. Local political and civilian departments and agencies excluded: Municipalities and civilian departments can also play important role in the maintenance of security. However, these institutions are under resourced and culturally and administratively unprepared for national security. Part of this problem is due to the existing national security concept and definitions. We need to integrate the local municipalities and civil departments also into the national security mainstream.

5. Lack of peoples’ faith and ownership in the security apparatus: The security systems that we have developed are far from the reach of common people. These are slow, unscientific, biased, costly, traditional, insulting, incapable, and inefficient. We have not given enough attention to the consultation, consent, commitment, and participation of local community. People do not have trust and confidence on the security agencies. They do not own the system.

6. There is a state of anarchy and lawlessness: The society is facing a state of lawlessness and mayhem due to the ignorance, indiscipline, recklessness, irresponsibility, coercion, and violent stance. There seems to be ‘no law’ at all. Even if there is any, it rarely connotes anything. We do not know what is ‘wrong’ and ‘right.’ The one who is doing right is often bullied. This is partly because of the political culture of the country. Our politics have not been polished yet. Our political parties and politicians do not give priority to the interests of the people; rather they fight for their own petty ‘rewards.’ We will have to address this with proper education and disciplining.

Works in women and children issues

Background works of Dr. Govind Thapa in the field of women and children

Women and Child Service Centre: Women and children suffer from various forms of violence and crimes in our society. His contribution to control these crimes actually started after the workshop on the investigations of crimes against women and children in 1995. The participants of the workshop criticized police for being ignorant, insensitive and inefficient to investigate violence and crimes against women and children. Since that moment, with a view that a senior police officer must get concerned, he started getting involved in the activities launched by some NGOs to fight violence and crimes against women and children. Within few months, on 16 Feb 1996, Police Women Cells[now Women and Children services Centres(WCSC)] were established in police headquarters and in four districts; Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Kaski, and Morang. These WCSCs started working with limited capacity and resources. Soon these became popular amongst poor victims. Local NGOs came in with more information of violence and crimes. The reporting coverage of violence and crimes against women and children increased. These WCSCs became more active and busy dealing with these cases. Soon these started collaborating with local NGOs. They also established their links with local communities through Community Police Centers.

UNICEF: Having felt the importance, effectiveness and potentialities of these WCSCs, Nepal police signed a MOU with UNICEF. He contributed later as the project coordinator during 1999-2000. This joint initiative helped police educate its officials on the various issues of human rights--especially women and children’s rights. At present, there are two separate desks for human trafficking and child sexual offences in the police headquarters. There are offices of WCSCs in more than fifty districts.

DFID: The British Government also offered its help by signing another MOU for the five-year long UK-DFID/Nepal police project- now coined as Nepal Police Development Project. He worked as the project manager during the years 1999-2001. This project constructed the first building for Women and Children Services Center of Lalitpur district. Later on, 12 more such buildings were built in twelve districts during 2000-2001.

ADB: Later on he also got involved with the ADB in conducting studies and developing strategies to contribute Nepal police fight human trafficking since past few years. The ADB suspended the project at that time due to security problems. It is again developing plan for establishing women and children services centers in 11 more districts of mid west and far west region of Nepal.

He has also played key roles to involve American Embassy, The Daywalka Foundation, and Planet Enfant to support training activities for police.

HUGOU: He has also been contributing in the efforts to improve the police culture in Nepal. He contributed as a senior consultant for Human Rights and Good Governance Advisory Unit (HUGOU) for a research project on international pattern between people from selected enforcement unit and cross section of the public with particular focus on disadvantaged group in 2001.

CVICT: In 2000, he also worked as a part time consultant to the Center for Victims of Torture (CVICT) for a project on strengthening prison and penal reform. The report is published and can be accessed to in http://www.esp-nepal.com. Based upon that report the improvement in jail administration project is currently in operation. The preface reads:

This study was a concrete attempt to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Nepal’s penal and prison systems and to seek ways of minimizing the weaknesses and maximizing the strengths. It covered a range of issues: from the historical background, to the hardships suffered by victims of the penal system, to possible solutions to overcome the problems to suit modern day needs. The main outcome of the study is this book, which is divided into six parts. The concluding agenda for change, if taken objectively and sincerely, should bring about a significant transformation in the penal and prison situation in Nepal. A number of people made concrete contributions to this report. The most notable were made by the consultant experts. The expertise of Dr. Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Govind Prasad Thapa, Shambu Ghimire and Vinaya Kumar Kasujoo deserve special mention.

UNOHCHR: He also was a Consultant to High Commissioner, Office of UNOHCHR to prepare Human Rights Training Manual for police in 2000.

PhD Research: He completed Doctoral (PhD) research in 2002 on human trafficking and law enforcement. A summary of the research:

The reporting of the trafficking cases was limited due to several factors. The criminal procedures take several years to complete and there are inefficiencies on part of the law enforcement agencies. The co-ordination and co-operation between the police, prosecutors, judges, physicians, forensic specialists and the jail administration, is utterly lacking.
One of the other findings of this research study has been the large number of prisoners claiming to be innocent. The total population of prisoners in the three jails of Kathmandu valley was 1886 in the year 2000-2001. The number of offenders involved in human trafficking was 259 (13.73%) out of which 44 (16.98%) of those involved in cases of trafficking, were women.
Out of the 145 prisoners interviewed, only 37 (25.51%) confessed their crimes or partial involvement while 108 (74.48%) denied the accusation. Their contentions were that they were framed up for various reasons ranging from revenge, personal enmity, local politics, police torture and pressure. Many of them blamed the police for torture and almost all agencies of law enforcement for corruption. 73 of them were put into jails for more than ten years, 21 were imprisoned for 1-10 years while 51 were remanded to jail for further investigation. Several recommendations were prescribed for the improvement in the law enforcement.

Penal Code Reform: He was one of the members of a high-level national task force headed by the Attorney General to review and reform current criminal penal code of Nepal. The task force has submitted its recommendation to the government.

Trafficking Law Draft: The national law of Nepal on human trafficking was incomplete and faulty. It required amendments. He had the opportunity to chair the team of experts to recommend amendments and draft the new bill. The civil society and the ministry of women and children later approved necessary changes and forwarded it to the ministry of law and justice. He also had the opportunity to attend a workshop of experts in Mumbai to review and recommend substantial amendments in the SAARC Convention on trafficking.

SAATHI: He also worked with SAATHI, a NGO, for study on the psychosocial impacts of violence against women and girls with special focus on rape, incest, and polygamy in 2001. The report can be accessed at http://www.saathi.org.np.

FWDL: His association with Forum for Women Development and Law (FWDL) was aimed at improving the national law against all forms of crimes against women and children. He contributed a chapter for the training manual on human trafficking designed for law enforcement officials.

Author: He has also contributed a chapter on “Rape Survivors: Psychosocial Problems and Investigation in Southern Asia,” for Medical Legal & Social Science Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation (2 Volumes), published by GW Medical publishing, Missouri, USA, 2005.

LAAC: He is advisor of Legal Aid and Consultancy Centre—a NGO working in the field of women and children.

International Experiences

IOM Project: He has taken a round trip to Dhaka, Jessore and Rajshree of Bangladesh to deliver presentations on the issues of Combating Human Trafficking through community policing strategy in 2004 as IOM’s consultant.

INTERPOL: He has been attending some seminars and workshops organized on the theme of prevention and control of sexual offences. The most recent of them being the 21st and 22nd INTERPOL Specialist Thematic Group Seminar on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Lyon and Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2003 and 2004.

IPES Conference: He has also participated in the 11th International Police Executives Symposium Seminar on Criminal Exploitation of Women and Children in Canada in 2004. He was a moderator in one of the thematic workshops on path breaking strategies in the global fight against sex trafficking held in Washington in 2003.

SAARC Conference on Police Cooperation Matters: He has also raised the importance of establishing SAARCPOL for regional police cooperation in both, 3rd and 4th SAARC conferences on cooperation in police matters held respectively in Kathmandu, Nepal and Islamabad, Pakistan in 2003 and 2004. This mechanism will serve implement Conventions signed in SAARC Conferences.

Research Fellow: Social Inclusion Research Fund (SIRF)/SNV Nepal (Netherlands Development Organization) in 2007-9 for a research on the violence against women and access to justice in three districts—Rupandehi, Nawalparasi, and Kapilvastu. The abstract reads:

The violence against women is important to justice; women having problem to get justice is more so. The access to justice to the victims of rape and sexual assault is limited. For many, the justice system does not exist at all. There are cross cutting issues of social stigma, indictment, social exclusion, traditional and inhospitable justice systems that discourage victims from reporting the violence. Those who endeavor, they experience most indifferent and humiliating behavior of the society and criminal justice system. This study finds that the present dysfunctional criminal justice system is required to be transformed into a more human, responsive, fair, accessible, inexpensive and dynamic service system to an extent that it is replaced by a proper alternative system.

Resident Fellow: of Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Centre, Italy, 2009. During the stay in Bellagio Study Centre he studied the international attempts to prevent and control family violence.

Maoist's general strike and security concerns

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has launched an indefinite general strike in the country demanding new constitution and new national government among others since May 2 following a 'unique' May Day mass demonstration. As are common in mass demonstrations of such scale, the risks of attack and murder, bombing, clash among dissenting groups, and panic exist in this strike. The patience of striking party cadres, general public, opposing parties, and security forces are running down. As the days are passing by, there are symptoms that the general strike will be no more 'peaceful' in coming days. Provocative speeches and actions (from all leaders including the government?) rather than call for patience are dominating. So far the security forces have exhibited extremely good professionalism. Much depends upon the striking party leaders' capability to manage the general strike and cadres' perseverance and patience.

SAARCPOL for South Asia Policing

At the time when criminals have joined hands across countries, governments still operate along hierarchical lines and are further hindered by bureaucratic rivalry and competition, interagency antipathies, and reluctance to share information and coordinate operations. Understanding network structures and operations make it easier to identify vulnerabilities against which concerted attacks should be directed. Particularly important in this connection is the identification of critical nodes. These attacks could be of two natures: external (core attacks) and internal (using crossovers to feed misinformation into the network). To counter the criminal groups, there is need for carefully orchestrated, finely calibrated, and implemented operation in a comprehensive and systematic fashion. For this, clear delineation of objectives and enhanced intelligence assessments are the prerequisites. Besides this, international collaboration is a must. The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) is one such body to facilitate international policing efforts.
A concept of regional policing came into the discussion during the SAARC Conference on Police Cooperation Matters held in Kathmandu. The Nepal Police proposed for a much hybrid concept of South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Police or SAARCPOL. The vision of establishing this SAARCPOL was to muster cooperation in matters of policing terrorism, serious and organized crimes in the region. This concept was proposed to commensurate the need for quick and effective actions against the criminal networks in South Asia. Similar regional policing systems have been started in Europe as European Police (EUROPOL) and South East Asia Police (ASEANOPOL). This concept was welcomed by almost all the member countries albeit some technical arrangements were suggested to be developed by the SAARC Secretariat. In the following year, this proposal was again raised by Nepali police delegate (headed by this writer) in Islamabad conference. Again, due to lack of clear operational framework this was again set aside for the next meeting. Although the Police Conferences so far have deliberated on a number of important matters relating to networking arrangements among Police Authorities in the Member States, revised Concept Paper on the establishment of SAARCPOL, prevention of organized crimes, combating corruption, drug abuse, drug trafficking and money laundering and training requirements of police officers and networking among police authorities, nothing concrete has emerged or the public is not informed of any progress made.
The growing complexity of the business of policing has warranted increased knowledge and information gathering and management, and police need a process to better derive decisions and improve efficiency. The successful investigations of multinational organized crimes depend upon the baseline groundwork of any organization responsible for preventing and controlling these types of crimes and the international collaboration. We are aware that the SAARC has signed some Conventions of importance, for example, trafficking of women and children for prostitution; mutual assistance in criminal matters; narcotics drugs; suppression of terrorism etc. However, the implementation is nowhere to be seen. The mechanism of SAARCPOL can be of great help to implement conventions. Since the prime minister is heading for SAARC Conference, this issue of regional security mechanism must be an agenda at the secretary level in the conference. Like Interpol, it can help the member countries in various aspects of policing:
Identify, establish and maintain contacts with experts in the field
Monitor and analyze information related to specific areas of activity and criminal organizations
Mdentify major criminal threats with potential global impact
Pursue strategic partnerships with various organizations and institutions
Aassist in finding solutions to problems encountered by law enforcement agencies (LEAs)
Monitor, evaluate and exploit information and reports received at the SAARCPOL, LEAs, open sources, international organizations and other institutions
Initiate, prepare and participate in programs to improve the international sharing of information Promote and carry out joint projects with other international organizations and institutions active in specific crime areas
Research, develop and publish documents for investigators
Provide support to member countries in ongoing international investigations on a case-by-case basis

Peace for conflict free societies

Almost all of us think that security, justice and peace are something which are to be taken care of by somebody else--not ourselves--by state, by some agencies or some organizations. We forget that these are integral part of our life and society--in whatever profession we are in. We have to face violence, intimidation, injustice, inequality, hatred, and so on almost daily in our life. In post-conflict societies, as ours, it becomes our duty to establish peace through security and justice. The educational institutions play important roles to respond to the need of the society. They need to reform their educational structures. The educators need to have more knowledge and skills and they need to take actions to work toward 'positive and real' peace. We need to broaden and deepen our thinking about peace and reconciliation for enduring peace in Nepal. We must do something from our side; not just wait somebody to do it for us.
12 Nov 2009

Violence against women and access to justice

Synopsis of the research work that I completed on the violence against women and access to justice few months before.
The violence against women is important to justice; women having problems with access to justice is more so. The culture of society is the way of life of its members. Nepali societies stand upon moral and cultural values. Any one member of a family falling victim to sexual assault is a source of stress for the whole family and community. The relationship between the victim and family members and communities turn stressful and often end up in disasters. The societies stigmatize, intimidate, coerce and exclude these victims instead of providing protection. Many victims fear to report the crime to shun such social behaviors. Even if some choose to do so for legal justice, they encounter multiple problems in the process. On the other hand, many such cases which are under investigation are either dropped or neutralized because of financial or political pressures. Therefore, quite often, rape and sexual assaults are considered victimless offences.
The access of women victims to justice is not properly safeguarded in Nepal. The formal processes of the criminal justice system have been the most vulnerable to critique from the perspective of victims. The majority of victims are of the opinion that they are largely “forgotten or abandoned” in the justice delivery process. Major obstacles continue to prevent most victims from seeking justice. The existing criminal justice system is criticized for failure to addressing a range of needs and rights of victim. This system has not been able to deliver even the minimum services to the victims; the system behaves in a negative way. The criminal justice system treats victims not as human but as “piece of evidence” only.
The rape trials are widely criticized for the insensitivity and repeated and persistent questioning of complaints about minor details and inconsistencies and the use of cross examination strategies designed to show that the victims did not react as ‘real’ victims would have reacted. The defendant lawyers always think the victims are playing one or the other ‘naatak’— drama. In such situations, the victims choose to silently suffer the trauma and pain for the whole life. They lose access to political, social, and economic opportunities. They are further pushed to the precipice of tragedy. One of the rape victims related her experience: “I feel lonely and isolated. I’ve always had so much to say, and I’ve never said it. What’s hindered me the most is being so skilled at being silent. Incest has had so much to do with being silenced and silencing myself.”

Controlling small arms

On 31 Jan 2010 I had a live interview with Antenna Foundation FM Radio on controlling small arms. I stressed on regulating issuance of arms to police and army personnel on the basis of psychological tests. I also stressed on the need to stop issuing new arms licences and drive campaign to confiscate all illegal small arms.

A talk with UNMIN

I had a meeting with Mr. Hughes Gordon--the Advisor to UNMIN on 15 Jan 2010. The meeting revolved around the integration of Maoist ex-combatants into the security forces. My views in this case were:
Only ex-combatatnts should be integrated, not combatants with arms;
Ex-combatants should not be integrated in bulk--not in the strength of platoon or company;
The Maoist should disown the ex-combatants once they are integrated;
The security forces should not make any discrimination to these ex-combatants;
Unions inside the security forces should not be allowed.

Police Reforms

On 24 Magh 2066 (7 Feb. 2010), Jamim Shah was murdered on broad daylight in Kathmandu street. Soon after his murder, India’s government-controlled news agency Press Trust of India wrote about Shah: “The Nepali media mogul is alleged to have links with the underworld, including Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan, allegations he had consistently denied. It was also alleged that his TV channel had received investments from underworld sources.” The TOI says about Shah’s newspapers: “Shah also ran a newspaper, Space Time, that carried anti-India propaganda.” And about his Dawood, ISI links: “In 2004, he came under the ire of the Indian government who asked Nepal to freeze the assets of Space Time Network, alleging that it was funded by Dawood. Shah is also believed to have had ISI links. However, he had stoutly denied both allegations.”
Time will tell whether Jamim was involved with Ibrahim or not. There are already speculations that he had had some relationship.

Read more 
Contract killing in Nepal
Investigation of organized crime

On 13 Jan 2010, I presented my views in a seminar organized by Nepal Security Sector Network (NSSN) in Kathmandu. In this presentation i briefly talked about the current police challenges: 

Post-conflict situation;
Organized crime;
Impunity;
Losing community trust; and
Policing in federal set up.

The second part of the presentatio was on the actions required: Defining national interests and developing national security policy;
Developing new police structures;
Depoliticization of police;
Demilitarization of police;
Decentralization and Democratization of police.

The third part of the lecture was on the Special Security Program. My views were that this program was brought in haste without much planning and preparations. This program had actually no 'special' package at all.

The possible entry points for the police reforms could be:
Police structure in federal state;
Police strategic plan;
Police administration and management;
Police training.