FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM 95 Following the Male Declaration of the 9th SAARC Summit in 1997, the Technical Committee on Women and Development has prepared a draft of SAARC Convention on Trafficking that was finalized in the Tenth SAARC Summit of the Heads of the State Government in Colombo, July 1998. The SAARC Convention was signed on 5th January 2002 at Kathmandu and shall enter into force on the fifteenth day following the day of the deposit of the seventh instrument of ratification with the Secretary General of the SAARC. Important Provisions of the SAARC Convention The member States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) are the parties to the SAARC Convention240. The SAARC Convention emphasizes that the evil of trafficking in women and children for the purpose of prostitution is incompatible with the dignity and honour of human beings and recognizes in this regard the importance of establishing effective regional cooperation for preventing trafficking for prostitution and for investigations, detection, interdiction, prosecution and punishment of those responsible for such trafficking. It also emphasizes the need to strengthen cooperation in providing assistance, rehabilitation and repatriation to victims of trafficking for prostitution. Definitions The SAARC Convention defines trafficking as moving, selling or buying of women and children for prostitution within and outside a country for monetary or other considerations with or without the consent of the person subjected to trafficking241 In the Convention, the “persons subjected to trafficking” is limited to only women and children who are victimized or forced into prostitution by the traffickers by deception, threat, coercion, kidnapping, sale, fraudulent marriage, child marriage, or any other unlawful means242. “Traffickers” have been defined as persons, agencies or institutions engaged in any form of trafficking243 while “prostitution” means the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes244. 240 The SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution signed on 5th January, 2002 at Kathmandu. 241 Ibid, Art. I (3). 242 Ibid, Art I (5). 243 Ibid, Art 1 (4). 244 Ibid, Art 1 (2).