UN Study focus of WUNRN
Juridical Aspects
A.1.International Covenant on Civil &
Political Rights
2.Conventions Related to
Slavery
B.1.CEDAW
2.Convention on the Rights of the
Child
Factual Aspects
E.Right to Dignity
1.Prostitution & Slavery
2.Rape & Sexual Abuse
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Group urges immediate ban on prostitution ads in
newspapers
By
RUTH EGLASH Apr. 10, 2006
22:37
Jerusalem Post
The advertisement of
prostitution services in newspapers is illegal and must be stopped
immediately, according to the Task Force on Human Trafficking.
Spokeswoman Roni Aloni-Sadovnik told
The Jerusalem Post Monday
that an
change in the law was urgently needed to break
a powerful link in the chain of human trafficking.
"Everyday,
newspapers nationwide carry
full-page advertisements promoting these illicit services and furthering the
plight of women enslaved in the prostitution business," said
Aloni-Sadovnik. She said that while the ads might only list "erotic
conversations, everyone knows what they really mean."
Aloni-Sadovnik
said that the task force, which is a project of the nonprofit organization Atzum
- Justice Works, once attempted to put a stop to the practice by prosecuting
three newspapers in the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court. The court ruled that the
newspapers had illegally published prostitution solicitation ads but let them
off with a NIS 170,000 fine. This meant it remained financially worthwhile for
the papers to continue running the ads, Aloni-Sadovnik said.
"The law is
not completely clear about the advertising of prostitutes, and the newspapers
are just taking advantage of a loophole," she said. She was referring to Section
205c of the Penal Code, which reads: "One who publishes a
prostitution-soliciting ad is liable to six months in prison." However, the ads
don't explicitly mention prostitution.
A spokesman at the Ministry of
Communications said that it had no policy regarding media advertising.
Also on Monday, the Task Force on Human Trafficking called on the new
government-in-formation to honor its pre-election pledge to put an end to the
enslavement of woman by the prostitution industry.
"On the eve of the
Festival of Freedom, both prime minister elect Ehud Olmert and [Labor Party
chairman] Amir Peretz are in a powerful position to rid Israel of the white
slave trade during 2006," said Aloni-Sadovnik.
The task force also
demanded that the new government establish a new organization to fight
trafficking in women, along the lines of the Anti-Drug Authority. It asked that
NIS 10 million in funding be budgeted for such an authority, to provide a
central address for women who are being abused.
The task force also
asked the government to permanently close the passageways from Egypt that are
used to smuggle many women into Israel.
Between 3,000 and 5,000 women
have been brought into the country to work as prostitutes during the past four
years, according to a report released by the Knesset subcommittee on Trafficking
in Women in 2005.
According to the report, the women, who are mostly
from the former Soviet Union, are sold at auctions for as much as $10,000 each
and forced to work up to 18 hours a day. The women earn an average of 3 percent
of the money they bring in from prostitution and many are raped and
beaten.
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