On the occasion of International Women's Day, on March 8, DASTAk Foundation, a Pakistan based civil society organization working against gender-based violence across Pakistan, organized a virtual panel discussion on "Envisioning Elimination of Violence Against Women Across South Asia." The panel discussion aimed at starting a conversation on empowering survivors as change-makers, recommendations and a way forward to eradicate gender-based violence.

The panel discussion featured women rights activists and representatives of civil organizations working to counter GBV in the South Asian region, including Lubha Raj Neupane, WOREC's Executive Director, Dr Asma Shakir Khawaja, Associate Professor at National Defense University, Pakistan, Kamla Bhasin, Indian developmental feminist and activist, Shiranee Mills, Executive Director of Women's Education and Research Centre, Sri Lanka, Shireen Pervin Huq, a Women's rights activist, Bangladesh, Syed Ali Hameed from DASTAK, Pakistan, and Sayed Mohebullah Haqiq, Country Director of Women for Afghan Women, Afghanistan.

The panellists shared their experiences in combatting gender-based violence, infanticide, domestic violence, and early marriage and discussed ways and means through which collaborative interventions can be launched to eliminate violence against women across South Asia.

While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to aggravate the already vulnerable situation of the survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, the Nepal government still fails to ensure justice for decade-long conflict-related sexual violence survivors, survivors and right activists said at the virtual interaction program to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict on 20th June 2021.  

The interaction program ‘Women Survivors of Conflict in context of Covid 19 Pandemic,’ was convened by WOREC and Sahaj Network, National Network of Conflict survivors to address the challenges that survivors of sexual violence are facing and to advocate for appropriate response programs for their reparation and reintegration.   

Nepal’s decade-long armed conflict saw astounding atrocity crimes of sexual violence committed against women and girls by both the security forces and the Maoist combatants. Various reports also highlight the way both parties systematically used rape and sexual violence as a tool to control, victimize, and humiliate their perceived enemies. Thus, sexual violence against women and girls during the conflict was widespread, and the documented cases show that the girls under 18 were particularly vulnerable.  

Although many women and girls faced sexual violence during the conflict, most cases are underreported due to the fear of social stigma, rejection from the families and communities, insecurity, and lack of gender-sensitive services. According to Bishnu Pokharel, Commission Member of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), out of  64,000 complaints screened by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), only 314 are related to sexual assaults.  

On the other hand, those, who have filed a report on sexual violence, are still waiting for justice, reparation, and reintegration into the community. 

“Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence are not only battling with their emotional trauma but are also facing financial burden and social stigma since the government has yet to address their issues. And now, the Covid-19 pandemic has further intensified existing structural, institutional, and social-cultural barriers for survivors to get access to justice, and the government has overlooked their issues,” said Soniya Chaudhary, the chairperson of Sahaj Network.  

Chaudhary further pointed out that chronic underreporting of crimes has only been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic since the movement restrictions imposed by the government to curb the virus have limited the ability of survivors to report incidents.  

Chaudhary also highlighted that since the government has neither allocated a separate budget nor formulated any policy for the reintegration of the conflict survivors, they haven’t got any relief distributions to ease their financial burden amidst the pandemic. “As many conflict survivors lost their jobs amidst the prohibitory ordered issued by the government, they are financially struggling. However, they haven’t got any relief distribution from the government yet,” said Chaudhary.  

Addressing the issue, Anita Gyawali, Department Head at the Ministry of Social Development, Karnali Province, stated that the local government at Karnali Province has always been concerned about the challenges faced by conflict survivors and have been working closely with the central government to support reintegration and livelihood programs for the survivors.  

“Karnali province will be introducing three schemes program for the conflict survivors to help the survivors live a dignified life. The program includes providing free education for the child of conflict-affected families until they graduate, providing vocational training for the sustainable livelihood, and providing a monthly allowance for disabled survivors,” said Gyawali.  

Devi Oli, Chairperson of Social Development Committee of Karnali Provincial Assembly, also pointed out that although Karnali province had earlier come up with the reintegration program targeting the conflict survivors, due to the lack of separate policies addressing the needs of conflict survivors and flawed registration system, many conflicts related sexual violence survivors couldn’t get access to the program.  

Both Oli and Dhan Raj Shahi, National Human Rights Officer at National Human Rights Council, stressed the need for proper regulation and mechanism to collect data of the conflict-related sexual violence survivors for their access to the schemes provided by the government.  

In the program, although Bishnu Pokharel, Commission Member of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), acknowledged that there are some gaps in the efforts made by TRC for the justice and reparation of survivors of conflict, she assured that the TRC is working closely with the provincial government and is preparing the plans and policies in this regard.

"There are 314 cases of sexual assaults out of over 64 thousand cases. As per the data, Achham district has the highest number of cases related to conflict and sexual violence. The cases of sexual violence have been on priority for TRC and the commission has prepared an Investigation Guideline that mandates gender-friendly provisions such as the compulsion of having a female staff when survivors come to file complaints and ensuring the privacy of the survivors while working with cases related to sexual violence during conflict," said Pokharel. 

Pokhrel also requested all the stakeholders including civil society organizations and survivors’ networks to collaborate and coordinate with TRC so that they can jointly solve the issues of conflict survivors.“TRC will take all the concerns expressed in today’s program into consideration and will work together with stakeholders to address the needs of the survivors,” said Pokharel.  

The program also featured a video that presents the real-life stories of survivors during the armed conflict. The reports were produced based on the conversation with the conflict survivors.  

Laxmi was working as a maid at a house in Kathmandu before the government issued the prohibitory orders in Kathmandu to curb the spread of Covid-19. Soon after, Laxmi found herself unemployed when the family, who employed her, asked her to stop coming to work until the restrictions were in place. 

"My employers didn't want me to come to work out of the fear of the Covid-19 infection. Right now, I am jobless, and I am worried about my children. Due to the financial instability, it is already difficult for me to take care of my family needs," Laxmi shared her situation at the National level interaction Program, which was organized to mark International Domestic Workers Day and the 10th anniversary of the ILO Convention No. 189 on 18th June 2021.  

Rita (name changed), whose situation is similar to Laxmi's, further said that the Covid-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the already vulnerable situation of the domestic workers.  

"Since domestic work is not recognized as decent work, the plight of domestic workers is often overlooked. We are treated as invisible people at the workplace who become victims of abuse and exploitation. Due to the lack of a contract system, we don't get paid on time and are often paid less than promised. We neither have access to social security nor do we have income protection," said Rita. "As a result, unemployment caused by pandemic has left many domestic workers like me financially deserted." 

Laxmi and Rita represent many domestic workers bearing the brunt of the economic fallout and uncertainty caused by the current public health emergency. With fear related to Covid-19 and the restricted mobility associated with confinement measures of prohibitory orders, most people working as domestic workers have either lost their jobs or are being forced to stay on leave by their employers.  

A rapid assessment conducted by the Home Workers' Union Nepal of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) also shows that 85 per cent of the domestic workers lost their jobs because of COVID-19 and are now unemployed. 

To address the plight of many domestic workers like Laxmi and Rita, the interaction program, convened by the International Labor Organization (ILO), WOREC and International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), focused on providing a platform for the internal as well as returnee migrant Nepali domestic workers to share their needs and demands among all the concerned stakeholders.  

Speaking at the program, Shristi Kolaskshyapati, senior program coordinator at WOREC, stated that since the Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the vulnerability of domestic workers, the government should address the situation by ratifying ILO Convention 189 in order to ensure that the domestic workers are entitled to fundamental labour rights such as access to minimum wages, safe working conditions, social security and legal protection from discrimination and exploitation at workplace.  

"The domestic workers are unable to connect to the social security and are deprived of their rights due to the lack of registration system, unavailability of identity cards and contracts at their workplace. Therefore, to formalize domestic work to ensure domestic workers' access to decent work, the government should first ratify ILO Convention 189," said Kolaskshyapati.  

In June 2011, delegates of the ILO adopted Convention 189 and Recommendation 201 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers to improve domestic workers' working and living conditions worldwide. These new standards have been hailed as a 'historic agreement' to ensure the rights and identities of domestic workers. However, Nepal is yet to ratify the Convention, although it voted for it at the UN International Law Commission 2011. In Asia, only the Philippines has ratified the Convention. 

Kolaskshyapati also said that ratification of the ILO Convention No 189 is critical to ensure and endorse gender equality, equal work opportunities, and equal wages for both males and females. "Since domestic work remains a female-dominated sector, the government must ratify the convention to ensure gender equality and women's access to decent work and social security," said Kolaskshyapati.  

According to Nepal Labor Force Survey 2017/18, nearly 73,00 Nepalis are employed as domestic help by private households. Almost two-thirds of them (88%) are women. However, the nation has not recognized the contribution of women in the labour force as the labour of women in the unorganized sector, domestic work and care work has not been counted yet.  

Speaking at the program, Kamal Thapa Kshetri, Human Rights Officer of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said that NHRC has always endorsed ILO Convention189 to the government. However, he suggested the ILO, WOREC, and other civil societies develop a comprehensive study underlining why the ratification of ILO Convention189 is required.  

"Since the constitution of Nepal and labour act 2017 have already ensured the rights of domestic workers, if civil societies could come up with comprehensive study justifying the need for the ratification, we will have written evidence to support our advocacy to urge the government to ratify ILO Convention189 civil societies," said Kshetri.  

In his concluding remark, Richard Howard, director of the ILO Country Office for Nepal, said that the biggest challenge for Nepal has always been in the implementation of the labour inspection system due to its large informal economy.  

"Although Nepal already has formulated Labor Act 2017, it has been difficult for the Nepal government to implement labour inspection system, particularly since it has a large informal economy. Therefore, ILO would like to see the ratification of convention 189 by the Nepal government. In doing so, the government will be more vigilant towards its commitment to make the domestic work as decent work," said Howard.