A/HRC/38/41/Add.1 Association for Regional Cooperation, of which Nepal is a member, was set up in Kathmandu on 17 January 1987. 13. The Special Rapporteur notes the increased engagement of Nepal in international forums, including its role as Chair of the Colombo Process, where it made relevant contributions to the negotiations on the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration promoting, inter alia, ethical recruitment practices, access to information and remittance cost reductions. He encourages Nepal to continue engaging in the negotiations on the global compact, the Colombo Process, the Abu Dhabi Dialogue and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, supporting the transition to an ethical recruitment system. He notes that its enhanced engagement in regional cooperation with other Asian migrant-sending countries would allow a common agenda to be developed, which should include minimum standards for labour migrants and labour conditions, a collective ban on recruitment fees, the adoption of a standard contract and social protection and insurance provisions, to ensure that concerns about international competitiveness do not impact the transition to an ethical recruitment system. C. 1. National legal and institutional framework National legislation and policies 14. The 2015 Constitution of Nepal contains two mentions of foreign employment in the section on policies regarding labour and employment under part 4 “Directive Principles, Policies and Obligations of the State”, where it refers to the management and regulation of foreign employment in order to make it safe from exploitation, free and well-managed to guarantee labourers’ rights and employment and refers to the use of the capital, skills, technology and experience gained in foreign employment in the productive sectors of the country. Article 29 of the Constitution also makes reference to exploitation, including forced labour, trafficking, slavery or servitude. 15. The Civil Code (1963) is a combination of a civil and penal code. The recently adopted Criminal Code (2017) and Criminal Procedure Code (2017), which will come into effect in August 2018, include a much wider range of offences. 16. The principal law pertaining to labour migration is the Foreign Employment Act of 2007, supported by the foreign employment rules of 2008. The act is going to be amended. It sets out provisions to regulate labour migration, including through identifying the functions and provisions of various government agencies and private parties. It defines the administrative requirements for recruitment agencies and sets out provisions for an oversight and monitoring system by defining the requirements for licensing recruitment agencies. It provides for a complaints mechanism (sec. 35) and defines the circumstances for the revocation of a licence (sec. 13), crimes under the Foreign Employment Act and the punishments that can be imposed (ch. 9). It further gives the Government the authority to specify the upper limit of the amount an institution can collect from each worker, including a service fee and promotional costs (sec. 24). The Act also includes provisions aimed at better protection of the rights of migrants, including by protecting potential migrant workers from confiscation of their personal documents (sec. 18); from delayed departure; from deception regarding their contracts (secs. 15, 19 and 20); from deception over the jobs in question (sec. 36); against abuse at the hands of an unlicensed agent or agency (secs. 43 and 44); from overcharging for visas, service fees etc. (sec. 53); from lower remuneration or different tasks than those stipulated in the contract (sec. 55); by setting out the right to a contract in Nepali (sec. 25); by granting the right to insurance provided through the recruitment agency (sec. 26); and by granting the right to information through a mandatory pre-departure orientation session (sec. 27). Under the Act, the government is also required to set up a labour desk at the international airport and other places, as necessary (sec. 73) and the deployment of labour attachés to countries where 5,000 or more workers have been sent for foreign employment is defined (sec. 68). In addition, under the foreign employment rules of 2008, the appointment of a women labour attaché in destination countries where 1,000 or more Nepalese migrant women are employed is required. 5