Prostitution human trafficking and sexual exploitation

Prostitution, human trafficking and sexual exploitation

Prostitution  Prostitution is sexual activity in exchange for

payment  Street prostitution  Escort services  Sex tourism 

“Trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with the primary purpose of effecting a commercial sexual relationship by the tourist with residents at the destination”

Legal approaches  Abolition

 Regulation  Legalisation  Decriminalisation  Feminism

Prostitution in the Netherlands

 Prostitution is defined as a legal profession  Brothels are legal businesses  Approximately 25 000 prostitutes  70 % of prostitutes are foreigners  One of the biggest destinations for victims of human

trafficking  http://www.mensenhandel.nl/campagne/m_flash.h tml

Prostitution in Sweden  Regarded as violence against women  Illegal to buy sex since 1999 – the customer is seen

as exploiting the prostitute  Reasons for the law   

Reduce prostitution A political message To decrease human trafficking

Experiences in Sweden  Street prostitution decreased by 40 % from 1999 to

2003  Same period 200 buyers got a fine 

Small percentage of the total number of clients

 Number of victims of human trafficking was

increased from 200-500 to 400-600 in 2003  No official evaluation made

Negative consequences of prostitution  Violence against women  STDs  Exploitation of women  Encourages human trafficking

Human trafficking  The trafficking of human beings is the recruitment,

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transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purpose of exploitation. Estimated 600-800 000 men, women and children are trafficked across boarders each year 80 % of them are women and girls Majority trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation Trafficking is a lucrative industry

The victims  Usually the most poor and vulnerable people in a

region  Promised a good job in another country – better life  The woman is forced into prostitution  Estimated that 2/3 of the victims come from Eastern Europe 

¾ have never worked as prostitutes before

 Other countries are Phillipines, Thailand, Brazil ...

Causes of human trafficking  Unemployment  Poverty  Organised crime  Profitability  Insufficient penalties for traffickers  UN: ”Governments and human rights organizations alike have simply judged the woman guilty of prostitution and minimized the trafficker's role."  Demand for prostitutes

How to reduce human trafficking?  Government actions  Making human trafficking illegal  Raise awareness Potential victims  Police, social welfare workers  Clients of prostitution 

Possible questions for debate  Should prostitution be legal or illegal?  Should buying sex be legal or illegal?  What other measures can be used to limit

prostitution?  How to solve the negative consequences of prostitution?  How to avoid and stop human trafficking?