Global Progress Towards Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Children
A global problem requires truly global solutions to address the sexual exploitation of children.
Indicators
Age of Consent
Partial
Age of sexual consent is set at 18 years. The national legislation does not provide for a close-in-age exemption.
ECO Nepal, 2020
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
Partial
Universal jurisdiction is provided for some SEC related offences such as rape against girls and CEFM. Passive extraterritoriality is provided for trafficking crimes. For the rest of the crimes it is required that both victim and offender are Nepalese to exercise extraterritoriality.
Extradition applies only to those crimes included in extradition treaties concluded between Nepal and foreign states and conventions to which Nepal is a party. It is unclear which SEC related offences are extraditable and whether double criminality is required.
SECTT Legal Checklist Nepal, 2020
CSAM Definition
No
The national legislation does not provide a definition of CSAM which is in line with international standards. The definition provided does not include non-visual material, nor material depicting a person appearing to be a minor and computer/digitally generated CSAM including realistic images of non-existing children.
ECO Nepal, 2020
Background Check Required
No
There are no mandatory legal provisions for criminal background checks. Convicted sex offenders are prohibited from holding positions in both public and private settings involving or facilitating contact with children.
SECTT Legal Checklist Nepal, 2020
National Commitments
Partial
Nepal has ratified the CRC, the OPSC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention No. 182.
Nepal has not ratified the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the Council of Europe's Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
SECTT Legal Checklist Nepal, 2020
Child Advocacy Centers
Not Yet Assessed
SEC Police Unit
Partial
There are several police units including SEC in their mandates, mainly the Anti-Trafficking-in- Persons Bureau and the Cybercrime
Control Bureau. It is unclear whether both offences under national and extra-territorial jurisdiction are able to be addressed by these units, or whether they are fully functional.
ECO Nepal, 2020
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
No
There are no child protection standards for the travel and tourism industry in place.
SECTT Legal Checklist Nepal, Aug-20
Public SEC Case Data
No
Data is only available for trafficking cases. No information was found on whether this data is clearly disaggregated, made available periodically and whether it contains data on offenders and on compensation sought by victims.
ECO Nepal, 2020
Age of Consent Law is Appropriate
The age of sexual consent for both males and females is 18 and a close in age exemption (up to 3 years) is provided for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents.
The age of sexual consent is the legally defined age at which a person is considered mature enough to agree to sexual activity. The age of sexual consent varies across jurisdictions around the world and there is no international legal instrument establishing it, however various forms of advocacy have encouraged States to establish a minimum age under which engaging in sexual contact is considered a criminal offence. This is intended to prevent sexual contact with children and to prevent argument that the child consented as a defence.
Often national provisions related to the age of sexual consent include an exception, known as a close-in-age exemption, making consensual sexual activities between young people lawful if the partners are of similar ages and the age difference is not higher than a certain number of years.
To ensure that cases of child sexual exploitation do not go unpunished, ECPAT advocates for the age of sexual consent to be set at 18 for both males and females with a close-in-age exemption of 2-3 years provided in order to ensure young people are not penalised for consensual sexual acts with peers. The age from which the exemption applies should be established by States but may begin for young people somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.
Yes The national legislation explicitly indicates that the age of sexual consent unequivocally is 18 for both males and females, with a close-in-age exemption for sexual acts between peers (of up to 3 years) is provided by law.