World P4P News

Norway should rip up a law that criminalizes sex buyers, Oslo's social affairs chief believes, as a new report shows a marked rise in violence against prostitutes working in the city.

Anniken Hauglie (Conservative Party) called for the law to be scrapped after the city's official help centre for prostitutes, Pro Sentret, released a report detailing deteriorating conditions for sex workers in the capital.  Hauglie said:

The reality is that the law has made it more difficult for women in prostitution,

It's our political responsibility to take this feedback seriously. In my view, the sex buyer ban should be repealed, and I think the parliament should at least evaluate the effects of the law.

The 2009 prostitution law prohibits the purchase but not the sale of sexual services. But the Pro Sentret report indicates that the law has in fact made prostitutes much more susceptible to violence at the hands of their clients as the sex trade moves further underground. What's more, prostitutes have become less inclined to seek help since the law came into force, with many now perceiving that they too are viewed as criminals, the report says.

Many of the women also said the new law had scared off many of their more reliable customers, while troublesome and violent clients were relatively undeterred.

According to the study, titled Farlige Forbindelser (Dangerous Liaisons) , 59% of prostitutes in Oslo have fallen victim to some form of violence in the last three years. Often the violence is extreme. Eleven people have faced death threats, many have been threatened with weapons, or have been exposed to robbery, rape, or were threatened into participating in non-consensual sex,

Anniken Hauglie said she was appalled by the report's findings:

It's heartbreaking to see the violence they are subjected too, only to then learn that many of them don't report (the crimes). That means the aggressors walk away and are free to endanger others.

The report is based on interviews carried out from January to March this year with 123 prostitutes working on the streets, out of apartments, and in massage parlours offering sexual services.

Ireland's justice minister, Alan Shatter, has published a major new document which looks at whether Ireland's laws around prostitution should be changed. He writes:

I am pleased to publish this discussion document, which is being issued to assist a public consultation process on the future direction of legislation on prostitution.

The criminal law in this area is being reviewed primarily because of the changed nature of prostitution in Ireland. Prostitution in this country was once mainly a street-based phenomenon. That is no longer the case. The organisation of prostitution is now much more sophisticated, highly mobile and is easily facilitated by the use of mobile phones and the internet.

While there is a significant amount of criminal legislation in this area already, there is always scope for change and improvement. It is important to review the law periodically to ensure it is up to date and comprehensively responds to altered circumstances.

The document identifies several approaches of law from drecriminalisation to prohibition. It claims to be neutral about the options, but supporters of a particular approach are expected to say how it will reduce the scale of prostitution rather than explaining how it will reduce the problems associated with prostitution.

Update: Nutters somehow correlate migrant sex workers with supposed trafficking

28th June 2012.  See  article from  bbc.co.uk

A conference in Dublin on sex trafficking is calling on the government to make it illegal to pay for sex. A review of the law on prostitution is an opportunity to send a strong message to those who control the sex trade in Ireland, according to the nutter organisers. Trade minister Joe Costello will speak at the conference.

Denise Charlton, of the Immigrant Council of Ireland claims:

We know that 97% of women in prostitution here are migrants, often tricked into travelling to Ireland under the false pretence of a better life.

Ireland now has a unique opportunity to address a shortfall in the law which has allowed this sordid trade to grow. We are asking all like-minded groups and individuals to join us and either through public statement or by making a submission to tell the government the only way to end this trade is to cut off supply by prosecuting men who purchase sex.

It looks like Markian Lubkivsky, Ukraine's Euro 2012 director, was right when he said that visiting fans will have no time for sex.

Kyiv prostitutes and experts of nongovernmental organizations say they haven't seen any increase in demand for sex services since Euro 2012 kicked off.

After the championship started I spoke to girls in Kyiv and other host cities, and none of them said about crowds of clients, said Olena Zuckerman, head of Legalife, a sex workers protection group.

Some had predicted that prostitution would boom during Euro 2012, as Ukraine has been flooded by tens of thousands of foreign fans. But Zuckerman said the same thing happened in other countries that hosted football events, for example in South Africa at the World Cup in 2010.

Despite all the expectations there was no growth in either demand or supply of sex services, said Yevhenia Kuvshynova, coordinator of the Convictus-Ukraine charity project, which supports people affected by HIV/AIDS. Men have no interest in anything apart from beer and football during Euro 2012, she added.

Update: Nutter Nonsense

28th June 2012. See  article from  english.pravda.ru

In spite of the inflow of football fans in Ukraine for the time of the European Football Championship, the number of clients for Ukrainian prostitutes has not increased. Anti prostitution campaigners and public figures were claiming before the start of Euro 2012 that Ukraine would turn into a big brothel. However, it turns out that it is the fighters against prostitution, who create such a negative image for the country.

The local representatives of the most ancient profession in the world said that they did not notice an abrupt increase in the number of clients during the days of the football championship. Many predict an increase of the number of sex tourists prior to major sports tournaments. However, such prognoses do not materialize in most cases. That's what happened in Germany in 2006, when several brothels went bankrupt.

égalité All EU citizens should be equally bankrupt

France's minister for women is to organise a consultation on ways to abolish prostitution in France and Europe, she has told the Guardian.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France's miserable women's rights minister and government spokeswoman, said in an interview that she would be organising a conference of 'experts' on how to contain the sex-trade and was seeking to meet the home secretary Theresa May for input from the UK.

In France prostitution is not quite illegal, but activities around it are. Brothels were outlawed in 1946 and pimping is illegal. In 2003 a controversial law against soliciting was introduced by Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, making it illegal to stand in a public place known for prostitution dressed in revealing clothes.

Last year, the French parliament adopted a resolution on the abolition of prostitution saying its objective was a society without prostitution .

The consultation would consider recommendations made last year by a cross-party commission of French MPs that it should be illegal to pay for sex. The MPs had suggested all clients of sex workers, meaning anyone who buys sex from any kind of prostitute, would face prison and a fine.

The integration spokesperson Anja Hagenauer of Austria's SPO party has suggested that performance boxes should be constructed in Salzburg to allow customers to park in them and carry out their business with a prostitute.

Harsh police controls on the streets of Salzburg have turned the problem of prostitution into one that cannot be seen, and Anja Hagenauer thinks that this is bad for the women selling their services.

She said: Street prostitution is even more hidden now, and not as open. And the more hidden a thing is, the more dangerous it becomes for the people who frequent it -- both prostitutes and their clients.

The idea with the box-shaped parking spaces is taken from Cologne, where the boxes have been a success for many years.

Controls and penalties are wrong approaches, according to Ursula Liebing of the Salzburg Platform for Human Rights. She said: The punishment for buying street prostitutes is always discussed in Salzburg, as well as the safety and order. We need to look at the issue from the women's perspective, and at what is important for them. How can we protect their rights in the best way?

Spanish authorities seem to be taking a pragmatic approach to trying to get the economy moving. The Spanish parliament is planning to life the long standing ban on advertising sexual services.

In a country in which prostitution is legal, the bill will allow brothels, escort agencies and prostitutes to advertise online and in classified adverts in the print media. There are estimated to be between 200,000 and 400,000 prostitutes operating in Spain.

These are mostly foreign women from an assortment of countries -Nigeria, Eastern Europe and South America topping the list. Many customers are sex tourists, in the main crossing nearby borders although Spaniards also avail themselves of those touting the world's oldest profession . In a United Nations report 39% of Spanish men admitted to having visited a sex worker at least once.

There have been calls for prostitution to be outlawed in Spain but many women's groups believe that such a move would force it underground meaning that fewer trafficked women would be able to seek help.

The city of Amsterdam says it plans to force brothel owners to submit a business plan to the city describing what measures they are taking to ensure sex workers are healthy and not being exploited.

Prostitution has been legal in the Netherlands since the year 2000, and tolerated in Amsterdam for centuries. But in recent years both the city and national government have been giving way to political correctness.

The city says it will adopt the measures announced by 2013, whether or not a national law raising the minimum age for prostitutes to 21 has gone into effect.

London 2012: Will the Olympics bring more prostitutes?

As previously mentioned the BBC have done a good in depth piece rubbishing the claim that major sports events attract hoards of trafficked sex workers.

See  article from  bbc.co.uk

The real exploiters of sex work

See article from janefae.wordpress.com by Jane Fae

Jane Fae comments on the BBC piece and follows up with a few interesting thoughts on the origins of the myth of the 40,000 trafficked sex workers, and who was set to gain from it.

Ukraine's prostitutes hope to cash in on Euro 2012

See  article from  indianexpress.com

Meanwhile the international press sort of recognise that the mass trafficking concept is nonsense, but this minor setback doesn't stop them using a sporting event as an excuse for gathering an assortment of oddments about sex workers.

Nearly 200 sex workers have taken to the streets in Paris to protest against police repression and plans to penalise customers. They marched from Place Pigalle to Chatele.

The sex-workers' union Strass told journalists they wanted: our views to be taken into account when decisions concerning us are taken .

Morgane Merteuil, of Strass, said sex-workers were being repressed all the time - despite the fact that prostitution is not illegal in France.

The prostitutes say that new laws such as the ban on vans in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris and the proposal to penalise customers were pushing prostitutes towards working illegally with pimps and as part of illegal networks.

Belgorod region Duma deputies have put forward a bill which would punish both sex workers and their customers.

The proposal makes its case:

The actions of people who receive sexual services on a commercial basis are also unlawful. It is an obstacle for the fight with prostitution.

However the bill proposes that victims of the bill should receive a modest fine of 1500-2000 rubles ($50-66).

Moscow police figures show that since 1997, 21,936 prostitutes have been arrested and fined for infractions, but only 263 of those were actually fines for prostitution. The others were fined for different violations due to a lack of evidence for prostitution.

Ukraine's capital Kiev is taking steps to curb prostitution during the month-long European football championship, the city government have said.

Ukraine co-hosts Euro 2012 with Poland next month, and stages the final in Kiev on July 1.

Anatoly Holubchenko, deputy head of city government, told reporters that Kiev city government met officials from the interior ministry and state security service (SBU) this week to discuss measures to curb the sex trade, which is illegal in the country. He said: We have ordered police and the SBU to prevent such activities,

Tourism pamphlets handed out in Kiev often feature advertisements for massage parlours and other thinly veiled sex industry spots.

Local women's rights group Femen, famous for its female activists' topless public protests, has objected against hosting the tournament saying it will only boost the sex trade.

A new legislation proposal seeks to regulate prostitution and protect sex workers in Colombia, according to local media. Colombian Senator Armando Benedetti introduced the bill to Congress.

In a report by Colombian newspaper El Espectador, Benedetti said:

The proposal intends to regulate sex work in the country and guarantee health and labor rights. [...] it's not to diminish or promote prostitution.

According to report by El Espectador, various Colombian laws define sex work as immoral but not illegal.

Speaking on the necessity of the new legislation, Benedetti said:

Congress is an old-fashioned caveman. For it, things only fit into two boxes. One for good, one for bad. With issues like these, Congress prefers to hide or turn its back. The same thing happened with abortion and drug decriminalization. They don't want to talk about education and prevention.

A country-wide anti-prostitution campaign runs all over Uzbekistan this spring. It will consist of police raids and anti sex worker propaganda on TV.

Prostitution has existed in Tashkent, just like any other city of Uzbekistan, at all times, but most recently it has grown in scope unprecedentedly.

Experts agree that the main reason why young girls and women are engaged into prostitution in Uzbekistan has to deal with the desperate lack of opportunities for employment in other areas.

This employment situation has been made worse recent changes in the national legislation under which employers have to provide a paid maternity leave previously covered by the state. Naturally, employers in the private sector are not willing to cover the costs of maternity leaves. As a result, young women of child bearing age have difficulties finding job.

This decision to stop paying maternity allowances from the state budget was made by the government over a year ago, resulting in the growth of prostitution encouraged by the authorities' social and economic policies. One inevitably comes to a sad conclusion: the main reason of the growing incidence of prostitution in Uzbekistan is the mass unemployment among young girls and women.

Of course in Western Europe, such an increase in prostitution would be more likely blamed on sexy Rihanna music videos.

Canada's three main anti-prostitution laws appear destined for scrutiny by the country's highest court after the federal government announced that it wanted to appeal a decision that effectively legalized brothels.

In response to a challenge from three sex-trade workers, Ontario's top court last month struck down the ban on bawdy houses on the basis that it increased the dangers prostitutes face because they are forced to work outside.

The five appellate justices also reworded the law against living on the avails of prostitution to clarify it would only apply in cases of exploitation because it could otherwise apply to people such as a prostitute's bodyguards, accountant or receptionist.

In its application to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal, the federal government said the Ontario Court of Appeal judgment creates a legislative void.

This represents a fundamental shift in criminal law and social policy in respect of provisions that have been in force, in some fashion, since prior to Confederation, the application states.

The Ontario government announced it had decided, after a careful review, to join the federal government in seeking to appeal.

The court suspended its ruling on brothels for 12 months to give Parliament an opportunity to draft a new law, and also put a 30-day stay on the altered living-on-the avails provision. The federal government sought an interim extension of the stay, pending arguments on a longer stay, likely next month.

Update: Further Legal Challenges

29th September 2012. See  article from  digitaljournal.com

The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence group together with former sex worker Sheryl Kiselbach can go forward with a legal challenge of Canada's prostitution laws. The court ruling was 9 to 0 to dismiss the Conservative federal government appeal.

The federal appeal argued that the sex worker group and Sheryl Kiselback lacked any legal standing since no charges had been laid. A British Columbia judge had agreed with the federal government stand but the B.C. provincial court of appeal ruled that the group and Kiselbach could pursue their case because the group had public interest standing. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada the position of the B.C. appeals court was upheld unanimously.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has already struck down some laws that are being challenged by the B.C. group. However, the federal government is appealing that ruling to the Supreme Court as well.

The sex workers of Barcelona organized a protest action against a ban on street prostitution in Barcelona.

The women paraded through the streets with colorful masks and posters expressing their discontent against the authorities of Barcelona.

More than 450 women chanted We are prostitutes and we have rights , EuroMag reports.

They reminded the authorities that they also are members of the society and have rights like the others, but their rights are being violated. The participants of demonstration ended at City Hall where they read their declaration.

The Czechs  sex trade is stagnating and bordellos are desperate to entice new clients; but with Czechs now top clients, the trade is moving elsewhere.

In the 1990s, Prague become a famous destination for stag parties and sex tourists, and a favored film location for shooting porno. Today, the side streets of Wenceslas Square are still lined with bordellos, but the prostitution trade is now steadily moving into the living rooms of private residential apartments (known as privaty) to cater to Czech clients, says the head of a non-profit group that aims to protect women in the sex trade.

Recently, there is a new phenomenon. In place of erotic clubs, there has been a rise in the number of large privaty, apartments with many rooms, which have their own managers. They offer discreet non-stop service, so the client can zip in for example during his lunch break, Marketa Malinova, manager of Bliss without Risk, told the daily Mlada fronta Dnes.

Although organized prostitution is technically illegal in the Czech Republic, brothels operate freely throughout the country and women advertize their sexual services openly, and explicitly, without hiding behind classic fronts like massage parlors or the offer of companionship. According to the Czech Ministry of the Interior, there are over 860 brothels in the Czech Republic, of which 200 are in Prague.

But Malinova says the sex industry is stagnating, and the bordellos have been compelled to come up with gimmicks to entice new clients and ensure return visits, including offering happy hours, loyalty discount cards and a wide range of massages.

Brothels that cater to day tourists from Austria and Germany can still be found in border towns and along motorways, such as the infamous E-55. According to Wikipedia, there are over 200 websites for prostitution services in the Czech Republic, up from 45 in 1997, which enable sex tourists to book their travel and appointments to buy sex acts before they leave home.

Stuttgart tax inspectors are facing the task of measuring the floor space in all the Stuggart's brothels, after a new per square metre tax was introduced on the oldest profession.

The collectors initially resorted to extensive internet research to find all the sex businesses in the city, but found their computers blocked from the relevant sites. Once the necessary special permission was granted, taxman Rolf Kiener and his colleagues were initially shocked. It's rather eye-opening what's out there, he said.

The new tax means that all spaces in the city used to sell erotic pleasures will be taxed by the square metre, including strip clubs, porn cinemas and brothels. Establishments that offer both initial approach and completion of a transaction will be forced to pay as much as EUR10 per square metre per month.

To save embarrassment, tax inspectors will be measuring up the premises by appointment rather than turning up unannounced.

Two-thirds of Canadians support the legalization of brothels, according to the results of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Postmedia News and Global Television.

The poll results suggest the judicial system may be aligned with the community values of Canadians more than we thought, said Ipsos Reid CEO Darrell Bricker, referring to the recent Ontario Court of Appeal ruling striking down some of Canada's prostitution laws --- including a ban on brothels or bawdy houses.

There isn't a huge amount of shock and outrage (over the ruling), Bricker said.

Asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed that prostitution in brothels should be legal, 21% of the poll's respondents said they strongly agreed and 44% said they somewhat agreed.

Meanwhile, 20% said they strongly disagreed, while 15% said they somewhat disagreed.

The pollster surveyed 1,004 adults between March 30 and April 1. The estimated margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

In its ruling last week, the Ontario appeal court said the ban on brothels forced sex workers onto the streets, putting their safety at risk. It gave the federal government one year to amend the Criminal Code.

The appeal court also took issue with a ban on living off the avails of prostitution, saying the law was too broad and should be amended to target pimps who exploit prostitutes --- not bodyguards and other support staff.

In the same ruling, however, the appeal court upheld a ban on open solicitation of customers on the street.