Strategic Legal Consultation with Lawyers (2024): Advancing the Rights of Transgender Sex Workers
In 2024, Maya Ko Sansar (World of Love), with the support of the Urgent Action Fund, organized a strategic legal consultation with around 20 lawyers to explore how legal pathways can be used to strengthen the rights and protection of transgender sex workers in Nepal. Since sex work is criminalized in Nepal, transgender sex workers face widespread challenges including police abuse, legal invisibility, lack of access to justice, and deep-rooted social stigma.
Key Outcomes of the Meeting:
Legal Awareness: Lawyers emphasized the need to educate transgender sex workers about their constitutional rights, available legal aid, and how to document police harassment or abuse properly.
Decriminalization Dialogue: The group agreed that initiating a national dialogue on the decriminalization of sex work is essential to reduce violence, protect dignity, and ensure basic human rights.
Legal Reform Roadmap: A plan was drafted to work towards policy advocacy, focusing on amending discriminatory provisions in local laws that are used to target sex workers.
Strategic Litigation Potential: The meeting explored possibilities for strategic litigation to challenge unjust practices, such as arrests without warrant and verbal/physical abuse by authorities.
Partnership Building: Lawyers and human rights defenders expressed commitment to ongoing collaboration with Maya Ko Sansar for community legal support, training, and long-term policy influence.
This meeting marked a significant step toward building a sustainable legal strategy that centers the lived realities of transgender sex workers and works to transform Nepal’s justice system into one that protects—not punishes—marginalized communities.