WUNRN
PROSTITUTION:
TO LEGALIZE OR NOT
November 17, 2008
About the Author: Ambassador Mark P. Lagon is
Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and Director of the U.S. Department of
State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
![Prostitutes in Rome, July 3, 2007. Traffickers force women to protitute for passage. [AP File Photo]](111708_prostitution_files/image001.jpg)
This week I participated in a conference "Overlaps of Prostitution,
Migration, and Human Trafficking" in Berne, Switzerland which brought
together European government experts from Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden,
Switzerland, and Spain to discuss a very hot topic: the relationship between
prostitution and human trafficking.
The United States Government believes that prostitution fuels sex trafficking
based on solid empirical evidence. It estimates that approximately 800,000 men,
women, and children are trafficked each year across international borders.
(This is not to mention millions more who are trafficking victims who never
cross borders.) Two-thirds of these victims are trafficked into commercial
sexual exploitation, making trafficking for prostitution the single biggest
category of transnational human trafficking.
So, following a December 2002 policy decision, the U.S. Government opposes
prostitution and any related activities, as contributing to the phenomenon of
trafficking in persons. U.S. policy is that these activities are inherently
harmful and dehumanizing and should not be regulated as a legitimate form of
work for any human being. This view enjoys broad support from a range of those
concerned about human trafficking policy.
Sweden also considers prostitution to be harmful. In 1999, Sweden passed a law
to criminalize sex buying and pimping (mainly involving men), while
decriminalizing the act of prostitution (where women and girls are found).
At about the same time, between 1999 and 2002, several European countries came
to the opposite conclusion: Germany and the Netherlands legalized prostitution
within a government regulated sector. Other countries, including Austria, Belgium,
France, Italy, and Switzerland, also regulate prostitution. They argued that
regulation could provide prostituted people protection from disease and
violence, prevent the involvement of organized crime, and help reduce sex
trafficking.
But there was evidence at the Berne conference that more and more people -- and
countries -- recognize that where there is legal prostitution, sex trafficking
continues to flourish. Conversely, in Sweden, since it made sex buying illegal,
there has been a decrease in known human trafficking cases and shrinkage of the
commercial sex industry.
The Norwegian National Coordinator for Trafficking Issues, Jan Austad,
announced in Berne that later this month, the Norwegian Parliament is set to
approve a new law to make it illegal to buy sex or sell people for sex.
After much study, Norway has decided to adopt the Swedish model that emphasizes
the harmful impact of prostitution.
Mr. Austad explained that his country was particularly shocked to witness the
plight of hundreds of Nigerian women, trafficked into prostitution in Norway
under tourist visas.
Eva Biaudet, Special Representative on Combating Human Trafficking for the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, gave a keynote address in
which she observed: "We have let ourselves off too easy. Prostitution is
extremely harmful. People really get traumatized in this…. We are not
identifying enough sex trafficking victims within prostitution although there
are unacceptable levels of exploitation in prostitution."
It was a dramatic personal statement from this former Minister and Member of
Parliament from Finland. Asked how she had come to this conclusion, she
explained: "Since I came to the OSCE two years ago, I have been shocked at
how big this is, the exploitation of vulnerable migrant women and girls in
prostitution, and how no one cares."
Even the representative from the Netherlands said that the legalization of
prostitution had not accomplished what it was supposed to. Corinne
Dettmeijer-Vermeulen, her country's National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human
Beings, said in candor that: "One of the goals was to get crime out. Did
we succeed? I don't think so."
In a worthy step to the Netherlands' credit, earlier this year, the city of
Amsterdam closed about one-third of the city's infamous red-light district
because legalization and regulation have not dried up sex trafficking, which
has continued apace.
It was gratifying to know that as we learn more about the vicious exploitation
that occurs in prostitution, and the link between prostitution and sex
trafficking, countries are willing to reexamine their legal regimes.
This new information will also impact U.S. approaches, as we work to confront
the voracious demand which fuels this dark trade in human beings.
In my concluding remarks, I explained to my European colleagues that the U.S.
has developed a strong, bipartisan policy including the following precepts:
-- We need a more victim-centered approach.
-- We need to look for sex trafficking victims among vulnerable populations in
prostitution and migrant workers being considered for deportation.
-- We need to realize that prostitution is not victimless.
-- Open prostitution is not a solution to sex trafficking, but provides a guise
behind which traffickers can hide.
-- Where prostitution is criminalized, victims must not be blamed or punished;
those who traffic or buy them must be.
It was striking that fully four of the six main speakers shared this
perspective at a conference hosted by a country -- Switzerland -- whose
officials say itself is looking at its legal prostitution regime. Based on
experience and prudence, a wave of opinion on behalf of women's welfare, and
against violence and victimization, appears to be developing.
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