Independence: 4th October 1966, former British protectorate
Head of state: King Letsie III (Non-Executive)
Political System: Multi-party democratic system
Capital: Maseru
Other major cities: Mafeteng, Qacha’s Nek, Teyateyaneng, Hlotse
Area: 30 355km2
Population: 2.1 mil. (1998)*
Languages: English and Sesotho (both official)
Currency: Maloti (the SA rand is also legal tender in Lesotho and
is equivalent to the local currency).
Lesotho is a small country entirely surrounded by South Africa.
It relies heavily on migrant worker remittances (although declining),
its share of income from the Southern Africa Customs Union, and manufactured
products mainly for the South African market. Furthermore, income
is generated by the supply of water to South Africa from the Lesotho
Highlands Water Project. Other revenues accrue from the taxes mainly
contributed by textile exports to the USA (now declining) and internal tax
collection which has improved markedly under the recently established
Lesotho Revenue Authority (established in 2002).
The Government of Lesotho has committed itself to sustainable
economic growth and human development through institutional and
regulatory reforms in order to attain maximum levels of investment and
export opportunities. In addition, the prevailing political stability in Lesotho
is the key foundation for economic growth and foreign investment.
In order to reach the targets for Lesotho’s development strategy on
poverty reduction, there are vigorous programmes followed for poverty
alleviation as contained in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.**
Executive Summary
Lesotho is mainly a country of origin and transit for human trafficking
activities and the country experiences internal and international human
trafficking flows. The main actors involved in this crime are the trafficked
persons, the traffickers and the users of trafficked victims. These people
end up being part of the human trafficking chain because of various
reasons that are either push or pull factors. Pull factors might include
a demand for domestic and sexual services, economic differentials that
make even relatively poor neighboring cities, regions or countries seem
a likely source of livelihood. Push factors mainly include poverty, gender
discrimination, lack of information and education, HIV and AIDS, violence
against women, harmful socio-cultural practices and lack of legislative and
policy frameworks. The infrastructure and trends associated with a rapidly
globalizing world – like increasingly open borders, better transport, and
increased overall migration flows – complement the forces of supply and
demand that underlie trafficking. Globalization has provided the impetus
to both those who wish to migrate and those who traffic the unwilling.
Women and children tend to be the most vulnerable to human trafficking
as they very often carry the burden of poverty.
The laws that are currently in place in Lesotho are inadequate. It is
not helpful to enact laws without giving the law enforcement agents the
capacity to do so. The Child and Gender Protection Unit, which should
play a key role in the fight against trafficking, is under-funded, understaffed
and lacks sufficiently trained personnel to deal with this specialized
area of law enforcement. There is also a need for policies or projects that
are directly geared towards eliminating the push and pull factors of human
trafficking to accompany adequate legislation.
In order to eradicate trafficking of women and children there is a need to
address its main root cause: poverty. Women are vulnerable to trafficking
because they have less access to employment, resources and other means of
earning a livelihood. Lack of access to education and means of livelihood
expose children to situations of trafficking. It is critical that development
policies are targeted at poverty alleviation.
There is a lack of information and knowledge about trafficking because
of the silence surrounding the problem. Public acknowledgement and
creation of awareness of the problem would contribute significantly
towards its eradication. If policy makers, law enforcers and communities
are aware of the existence and evils of human trafficking, it will be easier to
identify, prosecute and punish all actors in human trafficking. Legislative,
political and economic measures must be undertaken at national, regional
and international levels to eradicate human trafficking.
* The Government of Lesotho conducted a national census in 2006. However, the official
results of the census have not been released.
**See Government of Lesotho, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, 16 December 2003. The
Ministry of Development Planning spearheaded this paper and contributions thereto
came from government, civil society organizations, the private sector and development
partners. It is a comprehensive document setting out, inter alia, indicators and monitoring
mechanisms for measuring poverty in Lesotho. Currently, Lesotho is ranked 137 out
of 173 countries and is classified by UNDP amongst the 49 Least Developed Countries
(LDCS).
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