SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

ut it neither defines pornography nor addresses the abuse of children in the production of
child pornographic materials. The Electronic Transaction Ordinance 2005 expands the limited
scope of the previous two acts by prohibiting publication of pornography on electronic media.
Again, pornography is not defined, the prohibition is limited to materials that offend ‘public
morality and decency’ and the impact on the child is not taken into consideration. 288
The recently proposed amendment to the Children’s Act by the Central Child Welfare Board
attempts to add substance to legislation on pornography by including child sexual abusive
images in its definition of sexual exploitation and abuse:
…taking unnatural photos, publishing or distributing pornographic photos in
electronic media…and showing pornographic material by means of deception,
force, or any other influence, including fear, threat or making the child
unconscious, or by giving or not giving money or other goods. 289
6.2.4 Other forms of sexual exploitation
6.2.4.1 Prostitution
The strength of the laws to address sexual exploitation is limited by inadequate definition of
terms. For ‘prostitution’, the Nepal Children’s Act uses the vague term ‘immoral profession’,
and the Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act 2007 (HTTA) has no definition
for the word. The HTTA, Part 1(2e) defines ‘exploitation’ as “… an act of keeping human
beings as slave and bonded and this word also implies to remove human organ except
otherwise determined by existing law” 290 , thus eliminating many forms of sexual exploitation.
Exploitation of children through prostitution is not expressly prohibited in Nepalese law.
Instead it is addressed through laws against trafficking in human beings in the HTTA, laws
regarding rape in the Country Code and general laws protecting children’s rights. Nepal’s
laws do not specifically prohibit the ‘voluntary’ prostitution of adults per se. At the same
time, they do not indicate that children, due to their age, cannot be considered to ‘voluntarily’
engage in prostitution. Under the section on rape in the Country Code, sexual intercourse with
a girl under the age of 16 is considered rape. The 1963 Country Code did not directly address
the rape of boys, although this was addressed in a subsequent amendment that penalized rape
of persons above the age of 16 and removed the gender distinction. 291 However, this law does
not protect children aged 16 to 18 who are commercially sexually exploited from being
considered ‘voluntary’ prostitutes.
The HTTA is primarily intended to address the trafficking of adult women into prostitution.
The law emphases ‘trafficking’ and ‘transportation’ of victims rather than their sexual
exploitation. In the HTTA, enforced prostitution is one of several disparate acts by which a
288 Electronic Transaction Ordinance 2004.
289 Central Child Welfare Board, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Government of Nepal, 2007,
unpublished draft of proposed bill to amend the Children’s Act.
290 Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act 2007.
291 11 th Amendment to the Country Code of Nepal (Muluki Ain) 1963.
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