FRANCE MEMBERS OF EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT CHALLENGE GOVERNMENT FOR LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP AGAINST PROSTITUTION
& TRAFFICKING
"In
Europe, as in France, let us finally adopt a major abolitionist policy with
regard to prostitution and human trafficking!"
By Nicole Kiil-Nielsen (EELV – Greens GER);
Sophie Auconie (UDI – PPE); Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Front de Gauche – GUE );
Pervenche Berès (PS – PSE)
With
the support of Mikael Gustafsson (GUE – Sweden) EuroParl large
French
Members of the European Parliament, we have supported and brought to adoption
on February 26, 2014, a resolution on "prostitution, sexual exploitation
and their impact on gender equality." We are proud and confident
about this move: This landmark resolution will long be remembered in
progressive European history!
Firstly,
because calling prostitution and its exploitation "human rights violations
contrary to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights" and barriers to
equality between women and men, the European Parliament sends a very strong
political signal to those Member States where sharp divisions still appear to
reign.
Secondly,
because this resolution could help put an end to a 15-year cycle of liberal-pimping.
It is indeed at the heart of the European Union that states such as Germany and
the Netherlands have theorized and implemented the legal exploitation of
women’s bodies in the name of recognizing "sex work" and have decriminalized
pimping by making pimps into "sex entrepreneurs". Ten years after the
implementing of these laws, the findings are clear: the pimps and their
international human trafficking networks have prospered from the legalization
of the "sex market" and this at the expense of prostituted person who
are constantly younger, more vulnerable and from less developed third-party
countries.
This
is the third major step forward facilitated by this parliamentary resolution:
it clears the way for a profound overhaul of EU policy against the trafficking
in human beings. Following our resolution of February 26, 2014, Europol has,
for the first time, publicly acknowledged in the European Parliament that human
trafficking was on the rise, particularly in the countries that had legalized
"sex work." This admission previously certified in an international
study by British and German economists, should allow for a shift of the present
European policy against trafficking in human beings, undermined as it is by the
political inability of institutions and Member States to tackle the root causes
of trafficking which are the development of "national markets" and
the impunity awarded to pimps and sex purchasers.
In
this respect, we welcome the resolution adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe on April 8, 2014. This resolution does recognize the
failure of the European policy against human trafficking and urges Member
States to "consider criminalizing the purchase of sexual services, based
on the Swedish model, as the most effective tool to prevent and counter human
trafficking."
In
this context, we emphatically state that France now faces a historic
opportunity and responsibility to finally lead to fruition the excellent
parliamentary multi-party efforts conducted since 2010 in the field. The rapid
adoption of a bill strengthening the fight against the prostitution system and
the support we owe its victims is not only an imperious necessity for the sake
of justice and of support for victims of this exploitation of the most
vulnerable; it is also an opportunity to reorient French and European policy in
the struggle against human trafficking by demonstrating through concrete
actions that the exploitation of women and their bodies and the enslavement of
the most vulnerable should never ever be a source of profits for national and
international criminal networks.
France
is looked to by all those who want, in France as in Europe, better protection
for the rights of women to live free of any violence and for the rights of the
most vulnerable people to live with dignity. We therefore look to a strong
commitment from the Government and from all political groups sitting in the
Senate in support of the adoption, as soon as possible, of this major proposal
of a comprehensive and coherent legislation to strengthen the fight against the
prostitution system and in support for its victims.
Signatories:
Nicole Kiil-Nielsen, MEP (EELV – Greens GER)
Sophie Auconie, MEP (UDI – PPE)
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, MEP (Front de gauche –
GUE)
Pervenche
Berès, MEP (PS – PSE)
With
the support of:
Mikael
Gustafsson, President of the FEMM Committee of the European Parliament (GUE
-Sweden)