If British men persist in enjoying life... we're gonna cut off their bollocks

On the 7th March all the usual Fem Nazis got together in a conference to finalise their plans to criminalise the purchase of sex

It was a radical feminist only cast list with many of the usual suspects:

• Vera Baird QC, MP, Solicitor General
• Professor Jalna Hanmer - Professor of Women’s Studies, University of Sunderland Conference Chair
• Professor Liz Kelly - Director of CWASU, Roddick Chair in Violence Against Women
• Julie Bindel - POPPY Project Consultant and Guardian Journalist
• Marianne Eriksson - Swedish MEP
• Ann Hamilton - General Manager, Policy & Development, Glasgow Community & Safety Services
• Professor Roger Matthews - Professor of Criminology, London South Bank University
• Hannah-Jo Besley - Community Safety Officer, Ipswich CDRP

The Government were represented by Solicitor General, Vera Baird and she certainly spoke giving the impression that the criminalisation of buying sex is a done deal. From her presentation:

Tackling The Demand For Prostitution And Trafficking For Sexual Exploitation

To understand the government’s developing approach to prostitution we have to look, largely, through the prism of people trafficking. I don’t call it developing because it is new, recently the Home Office held a consultation under the direction of then Minister Fiona Mactaggart, which produced “Paying the Price” – a forward policy document.

Since then we have decided to look again at some aspects only largely because of the advent of trafficking and, for me, because of new research from Liz Kelly and others causing a refocus onto the issue of demand for prostitution.

...

Our measures on trafficking will be futile if we do not tackle the demand for sexually exploited women and children. Otherwise in reality once we have closed one trafficking network, another may move in and take its place; once we have rescued one victim another one is put in her place.

I know that some may argue that there is an element of choice, where those that have worked in the sex industry in their home countries come here to make more money. Though personally I have reservations about accepting the concept of choosing to be a prostitute at all. No doubt this may occur.

However let me be clear; for trafficked women there is no real informed choice. How many of them have a realistic impression of the situation they will end up in? How many are told just how many men they will have to have sex with? Or that they will be sold from one exploiter to another; moved around the country; be subject to never-ending debt bondage or that they will be kept isolated and forced to live in squalid conditions?

This cannot continue to happen. So what are we doing about it?

At the end of 2007 we announced a six month review to explore what more we can do to tackle the demand for prostitution. The review began earlier this year with a visit to Sweden and will include a review of the approach taken by a range of other countries, including the Netherlands.

On 10 January, I visited Sweden with Home Office Minister, Vernon Coaker, and the Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, Barbara Follett, and a small team of officials.

The trip was set up so we could talk to the Swedish authorities specifically about their legislation which criminalises those who pay for sexual services – including the debate in Sweden that led up to the change in their legislation in 1999 and its implementation.

...

We are also intending to visit the Netherlands soon to meet with their Ministers and law enforcement agencies. The Dutch legislation is in direct contrast to Sweden - prostitution was legalised in the Netherlands in 2000. Controlled “tolerance zones” have been set up away from residential areas and there are licensed brothels.

However, it is increasingly clear that prostitution has not been restricted to the policed areas and rendered safe but these arrangements have, if anything, increased demand and there is a “twilight” sex industry too. The Dutch Government has recently announced that they are to review their legislation this year and we are very interested in talking to the Dutch authorities about their experiences and the issues they are facing.

As part of our Tackling Demand Review, we will research the legislation in other jurisdictions, particularly those with contrasting approaches to prostitution, including New Zealand. In New Zealand, the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 decriminalised prostitution. The Act requires every operator of a prostitution business to hold a certificate and removed the requirement for massage parlours to be licensed. It is not illegal for a person under the age of 18 to be a prostitute but it is illegal for anyone to have sex with them.

...

So, as you can see, there is a diverse approach to prostitution from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is right that on behalf of the public we consider these various approaches, and the impact they have had, very carefully, so that we can learn from them and use their experience to inform our own policy.

In particular, we are looking at how our current policy can be strengthened to ensure we robustly tackle the demand for prostitution – and this includes considering the impact that it will have on sex trafficking.

We will consult with stakeholders as part of the review. We also intend to conduct an audit of enforcement, prosecution, and sentencing practice, and in particular we will be interested in identifying any regional variations. We will also be looking at the options for using existing legislation to tackle those who pay for sex.

...

As many of you will be aware the clauses concerned with prostitution in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill have just been removed from the Bill. They were firstly to end use of the term “common prostitute” and secondly to introduce a sentence for someone convicted of soliciting, which required her to attend three sessions with a counsellor or crisis worker to seek to assist her to exit prostitution. This is unfortunate but was necessary in order to help the passage of the Bill through the House in the available Parliamentary time. However, the removal of these clauses from the Bill in no way indicates a lack of commitment from the Government to tackle prostitution.

As soon as parliamentary time allows, we will look to reintroduce the legislative changes that have now been withdrawn, along with any new proposals for legislative change we feel to be necessary following the review into tackling demand.

...

I can see the argument that it is unpleasant to criminalise people we see, generally, as victims. However, there is something to be said for the leverage that retaining the offence can offer, in the context of these policies and the availability of diversion and so I would suggest that this is not entirely oppression by the state.

Further, we also have a responsibility to local communities and the wider public, and I believe that decriminalising prostitution altogether would send out the wrong message. It would imply that street prostitution is acceptable and in doing so remove an important safeguard.

So our overall aim must be to reduce street prostitution and all forms of commercial sexual exploitation, including trafficking.

Tackling demand is one of the areas where we think we can have the greatest impact. However, experience in Sweden appears to show that it is not just legislation that can tackle the demand for prostitution. It is also about challenging social attitudes and raising awareness about the realities of prostitution and trafficking. And specifically it is about changing the attitudes of men.

In the context of the review, we are considering a small scale targeted marketing campaign to raise awareness among sex buyers about the levels of exploitation in prostitution, including trafficking, violence, and the involvement of people under 18. The aim will be better to understand how to change attitudes towards buying sexual services.

By penalising those who organise prostitutes and make a living from their earnings and by targeting those who are persistent kerb crawlers, with the aim of preventing repeat offending, we are already deterring those who create the demand for prostitution. The penalties being applied in some parts of the country to persistent kerb crawlers include disqualification from driving, kerb crawler re-education schemes and fines, and the naming and shaming of those convicted in the local media. We will be examining the effectiveness of these approaches, and seeking to share “best practice”.

As part of the wider set of actions to tackle demand and trafficking, we felt it was important to address the issue of small advertisements in the back of newspapers which can fuel the demand for trafficked women.

In November, with other ministerial colleagues, I met with representatives from the newspaper and advertising industry and discussed with them how they could support our work to tackle the demand side of the problem of human trafficking for sexual exploitation. As a result, the Newspaper Society are updating their guidance to editors of local papers, which can help them avoid accepting personal advertisements which are, in effect, advertising this despicable trade in women.

Work is also under way on call-barring schemes aimed at eradicating prostitute carding. This will involve negotiations with the Mobile Broadband Group, British Telecom and OFCOM.

...

Returning to demand, I want to stress the importance of ensuring we drive home to the users and potential users of those exploited in the sex industry the real consequences of their actions. If they are knowingly buying sex from a trafficked woman, someone who they know has been forced to do something against their will - they should be under no illusions that they are committing rape.

And even if they do not know that the woman is trafficked, just by paying for sex they are contributing to organised criminality and their actions are keeping particularly vulnerable women trapped in exploitation.

And, of course, the pursuit of an end to the evils of trafficking is raising the issue whether in the 21st century a government, totally committed to gender equality with all the concomitant mutual respect and dignity that connotes, ought in any way to be permitting or sanctioning women being bought and sold for sex.

We look forward to working with some of the people present at this conference on our stakeholder group as we continue our review into demand and it is cheering to see that this event on prostitution is a sell out. I am sure that if we work together we can come to clear conclusions and start to make a difference.

Comment: Wimmin

Thanks to Alan, 21st March 2008

Interesting to see that Julie Bindel was among those consulted by the government for the punter-bashing proposal. I have often been tempted to think (hope?) that "Julie Bindel" was the invention of a comic genius, since the column appearing in the Grauniad under that name was so reminiscent of the lamented "Wimmin" column in Private Eye.

Her lack of self-awareness is extraordinary: she is happy to accept the benefits of society's current positive attitude towards her own lesbianism, but takes the attitude of a Victorian prude towards the sexual peccadilloes of men.

Since the kerb-crawling legislation came in, nobody’s drug dependency or rent arrears or benefit delays have magically cleared up overnight.

Women are still working on the streets, but with many of their regular clients avoiding the scene for fear of legal repercussions, they are seeing a greater proportion of unpleasant and violent clients, with a rise in requests for sex without a condom and services at insultingly low prices.

Some are resigned to being out all night, since business is slow, they still need to make money, and in some cases they haven’t a hope of meeting their curfews in homeless accommodation.

Clients want them to leave their traditional areas and meet them elsewhere, so that the clients won’t be targeted by police; as a consequence sex workers are working in greater isolation with a significant threat to their personal safety.

Glasgow city leaders want Scotland to introduce some of the world's strictest prostitution laws. Council nutters have launched a campaign urging the Scottish Government to turn the spotlight on punters by introducing legislation banning the "purchase of sex".

Street prostitution is already illegal and new laws introduced last year targeted men by making kerb crawling and loitering for prostitution a crime. But Glasgow City Council says brothels are still not adequately covered by legislation as it's not illegal to visit a prostitute and pay for sex.

Deputy council leader Jim Coleman says the solution is to bring in an across-the-board ban on paying for sex. A similar system has been in place in Sweden since 1999 and is said to have led to huge falls in prostitution. This approach has also now being adopted by neighbouring Norway.

A delegation of Swedish law enforcement officials visited Glasgow to explain how similarly nasty legislation might work here. They met with nutter Coleman and officials and volunteers who work in support services for prostitution, trafficking and addiction.

Coleman says the council will now try to pull in support from as many different bodies as possible and lobby the Scottish Government. He said: A new law would send a clear message to men that it is wrong to buy sex. It would also directly target brothels.

Coleman said the laws which came into force last October and outlawed kerb crawlers, was a step in the right direction: For the first time we have a law that targets the men who fuel the demand for prostitution. There can be no question that prostitution is exploitative and abusive of the women involved

Independent MP Shelley Archer has decided to support Western Australia's State Government's Prostitution Bill, assuring it will be passed by Parliament.

The legislation attempts to regulate the sex industry by requiring brothels to be licensed and allowing workers to receive standard workplace conditions such as worker's compensation.

Ms Archer says has told the Legislative Council she decided to support the Bill because she believes new laws are needed to help prevent the sexual exploitation of Aboriginal women and children.

A toxic trifecta of drugs, alcohol and pornography is fuelling a culture of violence against women and children. They are being bashed, raped, disabled and killed, their lives are marked by desperation and terror.

Given the reality of the situation this Bill at least provides some protection against exploitation of the women involved and some capacity for communities to control the operation of brothels.

Holidaymakers are ignoring environmentalists' calls to limit their air travel and are taking more "indulgent" long-haul mini-breaks than ever before.

Despite recommendations that they holiday closer to home, the number of Britons flying thousands of miles to spend less than a week in far-flung destinations was 3.7 million last year, according to a survey by Halifax.

The travel insurer is predicting that the number of what it has dubbed "breakneck breaks" will increase by more than a third this year, and expects 4.9 million British tourists to travel in 2008 to destinations including Thailand, Hong Kong, New York, and Rio de Janeiro for just a few days.

The Far East was the second-most popular destination, followed by the Indian subcontinent. Biggest takers of breakneck breaks last year were those living in South-east England, while those in Wales and South-west England were least likely to go off on such a trip.

However, Friends of the Earth was quick to criticise what it believes is an "indulgent" trend. Its aviation campaigner, Richard Dyer, said: These kinds of habits are going in exactly the wrong direction from what we need.

Exotic locations for stag and hen parties were cited as one factor for increasing travel.

The campaign group Rape Crisis Scotland is urging the Scottish Government to create a new definition of rape that includes having sex with trafficked prostitutes who work for pimps or in licensed saunas.

The SNP government is expected to publish a new bill this spring which will propose one of the biggest reforms of sexual offences laws in Scotland. The bill will be based on proposals drawn up the Scottish Law Commission. They include, for the first time, a clear definition of consent, which will require there to be "free agreement" to sex.

The proposals are currently out to consultation. In its response to the consultation, Rape Crisis Scotland has effectively called for a widening of the definition of rape. It claims that if rape is to be defined as the absence of "free agreement" to sex, this should include women forced to work in the sex industry. Circumstances in which the complainer had been trafficked for prostitution should be included as a situation where consent is absent, and intercourse constitutes rape, the submission states.

Sandy Brindlay, the national co-ordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland, said: Men who use trafficked women for sex are sometimes aware the women doesn't want to go through with it. In those circumstances, it's obvious the woman isn't consenting to sex. Men who have sex with women who have been trafficked are committing rape.

Last night, however, legal experts expressed concerns that such a law would be unworkable and would offer no protection for British prostitutes who were suffering the same kind of violence and intimidation.

John Scott, a human rights lawyer, said: (The new law] would mean the men could be guilty even if they didn't realise the women had been trafficked. It is unworkable.

Margo MacDonald, the Independent MSP for Lothian, who has campaigned for changes to prostitution laws, described the proposals as "impossible". She said: (The women] may have been trafficked and have paid to come to Britain, and some know they are going to work as prostitutes. You could hardly bring a (rape] charge if the woman has come to work in the sex industry in this country.

Extending the definition of rape to include sex with trafficked prostitutes would be controversial, as some men would claim they were unaware the women were working against their will.

A total of 21 men, mostly white collar workers, have been arrested and charged with kerb crawling in Edinburgh since new legislation was introduced.

Across Scotland, as many as 80 men have been charged since kerb-crawling became a criminal offence in October last year.

Many of the men lived with wives or partners, were in their mid-40s to late-50s, and were caught during the week.

Most were professionals, and worked as teachers, salesmen, doctors and accountants. A retired clergyman, a naval officer and a tourist from Kazakhstan were also caught.

Police and support agencies are studying the details of the men charged across the country to build up a more detailed picture of the people involved.

Those charged under the new Prostitution (Public Places) (Scotland) Act 2007 face a criminal record, a fine of up to £1000 and exposure to family, friends and colleagues.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: Kerb-crawlers should be clear of the potential legal and social costs of their actions.

Men using brothels and massage parlours should be made to give DNA samples in an effort to reduce the number of prostitute murders, an MP has said.

Labour MP Denis MacShane told the House of Commons that such tests would also be a way of getting men to face up to their responsibilities.

The suggestion comes a week after Steve Wright was convicted of the murder of five prostitutes in Ipswich.

The Association of Chief Police Officers is calling for a debate on whether to expand the current database - of DNA details taken from crime suspects - to cover all people in the UK.

But the government has rejected plans for this. Currently, only the DNA of those suspected of crimes is stored.

MacShane, MP for Rotherham, asked Commons leader Harriet Harman: Would she agree that taking DNA samples from men who go to massage parlours and brothels would be a way of getting men to face up to their responsibilities in this regard? Because almost all the horrible murders of prostituted women are by men who have frequented them beforehand.

Harman, who is also women's minister, gave no commitment but said that many rapes as well as murders are able to be solved using DNA.

Jack Straw dropped measures to overhaul the law on prostitution yesterday to ensure that a Bill that prevents prison officers from striking is law by May.

It means that the Government has also abandoned a plan to scrap the term “common prostitute” from the statute book — 184 years after it was first used in the Vagrancy Act 1824.

He withdrew the clauses to ensure that the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which re-imposes a ban on prison officers going on strike, is passed by May 8. The deadline is crucial because the Prison Officers’ Association withdraws from a voluntary no-strike agreement on that day. If the union were to take strike action it would cause chaos in the overcrowded jails of England and Wales.

The clauses in the Bill that the Government dropped would have meant that women who were persistently found loitering for prostitution would be given a rehabilitation order. Offenders would have had to attend at least three meetings of a rehabilitation course or face arrest and detention for up to 72 hours before being brought before a court.

The compulsory rehabilitation was to apply to those who were convicted of loitering or soliciting for the purpose of prostitution and would have been an alternative to a fine, which is widely seen as counter-productive because it forces prostitutes back on to the street to earn money to pay it.

The clause to remove the term “common prostitute” from the statute book came after a consultation that showed the phrase was regarded as stigmatising and offensive.

John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes & Harlington, welcomed the move. He said: I hope it signals a future approach towards prostitution underlined by welfare measures rather than criminalisation, putting the needs and safety of prostitutes above the desire for moral condemnation.

Update: Why Not the Dangerous Pictures Clauses

1st March 2008

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (Liberal Democrat) noted the dropping of the prostitution clauses with a pointed criticism of the Dangerous Pictures clauses:

I also make a plea to the Government that they think again about the extreme porn clauses. They would benefit enormously from pre-legislative scrutiny, which would enable us to discuss them in a far more considered and necessarily sensitive atmosphere before they were brought on to the Floor of the House.

...Mark says he used to spend a lot of time trying to pick women up in clubs and bars. Now the 31-year-old business consultant from London doesn't have the time: It is a mixture of the convenience and the time aspect. I work very, very long hours.

He recognises there is a stigma, but it is one he utterly rejects: Some of my friends are fully aware that I visit prostitutes. Many of them do themselves. There is this fear that it is in some way abusive. I would disagree with the idea that nobody chooses to do it for a living.

Patrick views it as a totally mundane transaction between adults: I see us as adults. I want to pay and someone wants to sell. As long as I'm not hurting them in any way what harm am I doing. I'm distributing my wealth to people who don't have it.

The trio all use a website, PunterNet, where "punters" - the men who visit prostitutes - go to discuss their encounters.

The men speak of forming friendships with the women in the parlours and saunas.

There's always a lot of girls that I know, says Patrick: We have a good camaraderie. I treat them as my friends and I feel to some extent they confide and talk to me.

There is one aspect of the media coverage that all three men find irritating - the idea that trafficked or coerced women make up a significant proportion of prostitutes. Patrick, Mark and Pete say they have never encountered a trafficked woman and that conversations with prostitutes lead them to believe it is rare.

The perception is that everybody is trafficked, says Mark: The figures bandied around for the numbers of trafficked women are absurd. Mark's position is clear. If he did meet a woman he suspected was trafficked he would do something about it, there and then.

I've never come across one, says Patrick: All the people I've seen, they have always been happy, we have talked beforehand.

All three men are, needless to say, opposed to the Swedish model that is now gaining currency in the UK where, the act of buying sex is criminalised.

...Read the full article

Remember the USA Protect Act made it a Federal Felony to have sex with under 18s overseas even if legal in that country; now, in predictable fashion, the US Senate proposed the expansion of that to include ANY "commercial sex". Next will be a prohibition on all sex outside wedlock. Scary times indeed.

House Bill 3887 sponsored by Tom Lantos of San Mateo, California, (who died on 11 February 2008).

§ 2423A. Sex tourism
TRAVEL WITH INTENT TO ENGAGE IN ILLICIT SEXUAL CONDUCT:

A person who travels in interstate commerce or travels into the United States, or a United States citizen or an alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States who travels in foreign commerce, for the purpose of engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

ENGAGING IN ILLICIT SEXUAL CONDUCT IN FOREIGN PLACES:

Any United States citizen or alien admitted for permanent residence who travels in foreign commerce, and engages in any illicit sexual conduct with another person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.

However as far as I can see the clauses did not get into the final bill passed by the Senate

Campaigners with widely diverging beliefs last night called on the government to re-examine the law on prostitution following the murder convictions of Steve Wright.

Both those calling for the liberalisation of prostitution laws and those advocating increased sanctions argued that the laws as they stand are inadequate, but they suggested very different solutions.

The present position in British law is complicated: though strictly speaking it is not illegal to buy or sell sex, soliciting and kerb-crawling are both against the law.

Niki Adams, a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes, said the Ipswich verdicts emphasised the need for the government to follow the example of New Zealand, where the laws against prostitution were repealed in 2003: The impact that people have found there ... is that it's improved the health and safety of women in the industry, which we consider the absolute priority in policy-making in this area.

Mark Wakeling, director of the National Christian Alliance on Prostitution, said that there was no "human right" for men to buy sex, and advocated instead the adoption of a model derived from Sweden, where buying sex became a criminal offence in 1999: Prostitution brings out the worst in men. The sad thing is that there are attacks and violence, even murders, against these women ... regularly. It's only when five are murdered in one place that all of a sudden it starts to provoke debate.

The government has been conducting a review into the laws for the past four years. In January 2006, it published a consultation document that advocated steering a middle ground between the two opposing camps, arguing for a more liberal view of small brothels combined with increased restraints on kerb-crawling.

Last month the Home Office minister Vernon Coaker announced a fresh six-month review, visiting Sweden to examine its policy. The position of the government, which at one point appeared to favour a more liberal regime, is thought to be hardening in favour of the Swedish approach. We are clear that street-based prostitution and all forms of commercial sexual exploitation must be challenged, a Home Office spokesman said yesterday. They are not inevitable; they are not here to stay.

It’s easy to see how the Swedish Model acquired its feminist appeal. The idea of finally turning the tables on the men who benefit from an undoubtedly exploitative industry, but who have up until now walked away scot-free from police raids and government crack-downs, is admittedly rather enjoyable. However, it is also clear that the criminalisation of clients would indirectly impact upon sex workers too, in some cases making their work even more dangerous than it is under existing laws.

As a result, the International Union of Sex Workers, the English Collective of Prostitutes, the Safety First Coalition (set up in 2006 after the Ipswich murders) and the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe all oppose the Swedish Model. They claim that women working with clients who are worried abut arrest will have less time to carry out basic safety precautions. Street workers will be deterred from working in more public and better lit areas and will have less time to assess the client beforehand.

Those working indoors will find it harder to find rented accommodation from which to work and will be put off working with other girls for fear of attracting too much attention. The laws effectively make the sex workers responsible for protecting their clients from arrest, or otherwise risk loosing custom and their means to earning a living.

...Read full article

The Swedish Consumers Association (Sveriges Konsumentråd) has reacted angrily to one of the ice pops in GB's new line. 'Girlie', a star-shaped, pink ice-cream with glitter make-up stored inside the stick, is entirely inappropriate, according to the association...

Sexist ice cream enrages Swedish consumer watchdog

See Also:

• Jägermeister - Sexist advertising?
   
• Sweden mulls ban on sexist ads
   
• Underwear ads slammed as 'too sexy'
   
• Swedish transport bosses ban boobs
   
• Underwear campaign bottoms out in Sweden
   
• Swedish school stops topless hockey pics
   
• Female road sign rejected

Local and regional newspapers are being urged to turn away advertisements for sexual services which may encourage human trafficking.

The Newspaper Society is updating its guidelines on those adverts which should be accepted on classified pages. It wants its members to be especially aware of the link between organised prostitution and human trafficking.

The society has already advised its members on how to spot adverts which might be promoting sexual services. For example , it tells them to be wary of ads for massage parlours which might be a front for brothels

The society, which represents most local and regional papers, is suggesting they simply refuse such ads. It also suggests that payment be made by card or cheque so accounts can be traced, and that papers consult with police.

The updated guidance follows a meeting with Harriet Harman last year in her role as minister for women.

Ms Harman, now Labour chairman and the leader of the House of Commons, is concerned that a growing number of young girls are being smuggled into this country and forced into prostitution.

Mean minded nutters are gathering in support of government interest in criminalising the buying of sex.

The Feminist Coalition Against Prostitution is a new group and will formally launch at a public meeting on Monday 11th February, 6.30pm at the Amnesty UK Human Rights Action Centre, nearest tube Old St.

Public meeting is open to all women and men who want a world where nobody is for sale.

The usual suspects have already signed up in support of this group.

It is interesting to see how far this group is pushing for one sided legislation. It would seem most likely that those who genuinely want to end prosecution would want to punish all of those involved.

This group want to punish customers whilst totally exonerating the sellers: We are calling for the decriminalisation of all women, children and men involved in prostitution - and demand that all criminal records for loitering and/or soliciting be wiped so that survivors are not barred from employment branded as 'sex offenders'

Update: Fiona MacMeanMinded at FCAP

Thanks to Donald, 13th February 2008

Julie Bindel is involved with almost all those groups

FCAP speakers included:

• Gunilla Ekberg, Swedish specialist advisor on prostitution law and co-Director CATW
• Fiona MacTaggart MP, oversaw ‘Paying The Price’
• Jan McLeod from Glasgow Women’s Support Project
• Denise Marshall, Director of Eaves
• Julie Bindel, Co-Founder of Feminist Coalition Against Prostitution FCAP
• Aravinder Kosaraju, Coalition for the Removal of Pimping CROP

Mean minded ministers want to block the phone numbers of prostitutes who advertise their services in newspapers and telephone booths in an attempt to stifle the illegal sex trade.

Police forces would identify suspected prostitutes to the telephone companies, which would be required to cut off their numbers.

The proposal has emerged in a six-month review of prostitution laws by ministers from three government departments. They are also considering making it illegal to pay for sex.

Vera Baird, the solicitor-general, spewed bollox that it was important to curb “the industry of prostitution” and the demand for call girls if the stream of trafficked women into Britain was to be stemmed.

Critics warned that blocking telephones could drive the trade underground, making it harder to police, and would force more women to walk the streets in the search for business. They also warned that it could criminalise legitimate escorts.

It is 10 times more dangerous to work on the streets than in a flat. It will drive it underground, said Cari Mitchell of the English Collective of Prostitutes.

Last month Baird, Vernon Coaker, a Home Office minister, and Barbara Follett, the women’s minister, visited Sweden where it is a criminal offence to pay for sex. All the main Swedish telephone companies have a voluntary agreement with the phone regulator to cut off the lines of brothels and prostitutes.

The ministers have already spoken to local and regional newspaper representatives about withdrawing advertisements for prostitutes — often promoted under the guise of massage services.

Baird also wants more local newspapers to publicly name and shame men convicted of kerb-crawling as a deterrent to others. She praised local papers in Middlesbrough for identifying men who have been convicted of using prostitutes.

Other MPs fear that the measures could backfire. Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat equalities spokeswoman, said: It is a very good thing that the government is looking at this, but there is a danger that it could drive prostitution underground. Any moves to try to eradicate the client side would have to be incredibly carefully handled. In an ideal world prostitution shouldn’t exist, but we don’t live in an ideal world.

A nutter Labour Lord has proposed an amendment to criminalise the buying of sex. As with the Commons rejected amendment the net is cast ludicrously wide and surely must stand zero chance of being accepted.

After Clause 193

LORD ANDERSON of SWANSEA (previously long serving Labour MP, Donald, Anderson)

Insert the following new Clause:

Paying for sexual services

(1) A person ("A") commits an offence if—
(a) he intentionally obtains for himself the sexual services of another person ("B"), and
(b) before obtaining those services, he makes or promises payment for those services to B or a third person, or knows that another person has made or promised such a payment.

(2) In this section "payment" means any financial advantage, including the discharge of an obligation to pay or the provision of goods or services (including sexual services) gratuitously or at a discount.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to—
(a) imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or
(b) a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum,
or both.

It looks like Luxembourg is thinking about the Swedish model too. See article from Sex Worker (German Language).

The same Austrian site is debating the related issues amongst the German speaking world. It has some articles in English.

Meanwhile West Australia is legalising.

A debate on prostitution has been called in the Welsh assembly by Cynon Valley AM Christine Chapman.

She explains why she supports calls for a law change to make it illegal to pay for sex and help prevent the "oldest exploitation in the world".

Statements like this seek only to stifle the debate and provide excuses. My fundamental argument is one of principle. Do we think that it is right in an age when we have made some progress with equality for women that women continue to be degraded and exploited though prostitution?

I do think that public opinion towards prostitution is changing and we should therefore grasp the opportunity to have a debate.

Most women I have talked to find it abhorrent; it is discordant with how they view themselves in the world.

I fully acknowledge that there is an argument that it would be better to legalise brothels in order to make it safer for women, but I'm not sure that that is the answer.

Prostitution is not a devolved matter: nevertheless, the Welsh Assembly Government has a responsibility to ensure that there are adequate support services. I would ask that the Welsh Assembly Government works with their Westminster colleagues such as Harriet Harman and Vernon Coaker as they seek to change the law.

While the focus is on Sweden it's rarely mentioned that South Korea has, after pressure from the US to combat trafficking, also adapted draconian laws ...toughening punishment of pimps and customers and protecting the rights of women in the trade, eg. revocation of passports, requiring massage parlors to use open rooms, increasing rewards for whistleblowers etc.

The results are not very different from Sweden though as shown by articles from the last few years:

• More news from the War on Prostitution
   
• Anti-Prostitution Law Gets Makeover for Second Birthday
   
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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill [House of Lords]

Amendments to be moved in committee

After Clause 125

Lord Faulkner of Worcester
Baroness Howe of Idlicote
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer

Insert the following new Clause—

"Definition of brothel used for prostitution"
The Sexual Offences Act 1956 (c.69) is amended as follows.
(2) After section 33A insert—

"33B Definition of a brothel used for prostitution
(1) Premises shall not be regarded as a brothel where—
(a) no more than two women with or without a maid are working together or separately on any given day; and
(b) it is a single enterprise.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply in the following situations where there is reasonable suspicion that—
(a) children are involved;
(b) trafficking in persons is involved;
(c) serious and organised crime is involved;
(d) known drug dealing is taking place.""

In the case of interest, Jenny Paulino was accused of running a prostitution ring on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Among other defense arguments it was claimed that the Manhattan District Attorney's office selectively targets "escort services" for prosecution, while ignoring distributors of adult films, who are engaged in what is essentially the same activity.

Justice Budd G. Goodman issued a ruling rejecting Paulino's claim, on the ground that pornography does not qualify as prostitution under the relevant New York statute.

Prostitution, said Justice Goodman, is and has always been intuitively defined as a bilateral exchange between a prostitute and a client. Therefore, the judge explained, the district attorney's office has not ignored one form of prostitution and pursued another, within the meaning of the law.

What is prostitution legally?

Most of us typically think of prostitution as involving a customer who pays a prostitute for providing sexual services. We intuit that pornography, by contrast, involves a customer paying an actor for providing sexual services to another actor.

In other words, prostitution is generally understood as the bilateral trading of sex for money, while pornography involves the customer of an adult film paying money to watch other people have sex with each other, while receiving no sexual favors himself in return.

In keeping with this distinction, notes Justice Goodman, the pornographic motion picture industry has flourished without prosecution since its infancy.

...Read the full article

During the waning days of the Clinton administration, the Central Intelligence Agency published a groundbreaking study that said at least 700,000 men, women and children around the world are trafficked into slavery each year. New estimates since then have gradually increased the count. But if the Bush administration is to be believed, the actual number is closer to 7 million.

Slave trafficking victims are usually promised a good job in a distant country. But once they arrive, they are held against their will and suborned into sweatshop or agriculture labor, domestic servitude or forced prostitution. It is that last category, sex slaves, that the Bush administration has distorted to the point of absurdity.

Put simply, the administration has concocted the view that every prostitute, worldwide, is actually a slave; the very nature of the work amounts to slavery. That nonsensical position is a favorite of the Christian right, and a few years ago the administration enshrined it in law and began cutting off funding to aid groups that refused to make opposition to prostitution an official part of their charters.

Ambassador John Miller headed the federal Trafficking in Persons office when the prostitution policy was first enforced in 2003. Before he left office last year, I once asked him if he believed every prostitute is, de facto, a slave.

No, he said, drawing out the word. If you take the Melissa Farley study, in eight or nine countries including the U.S., 89% of prostitutes say they want to leave the job. So I guess you can say 11% are not slaves. Even then, he added, 50% of those are under 18. The law says they are slaves. So that means the vast majority of them are slaves.

...Read full article

New legislation should criminalise those who buy sex and not the victims of sexual exploitation, the Irish Government has been told.

Feminist nutters of Ruhama called on the Government to learn from laws passed in Sweden nine years ago. The organisation said politicians needed to examine Swedish rulings before passing the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Bill, which is due before the Oireachtas.

Geraldine Rowley, of Ruhama, said campaigners still had concerns about the emerging legislation: We believe that Ireland needs to send out a clear message that the purchasing of women for sexual services is a crime. After drugs and arms, human trafficking is the third largest area of criminal activity in the world. Ireland needs to take a stand against organised crime and having the correct legislation in place is crucial to achieving this. [But nobody seems to be able to find the evidence that sex trafficking is as extensive as stated]

Update: Further Reading

Thanks to Donald

This article about Ireland is more detailed than the one you have linked to, once again a Swedish feminist spreading lies

See Govt urged to criminalise paying for sex

This is a good example here she says - Ms Bucknell, who has worked with victims of prostitution and trafficking, said the move to criminalise the buyer has also resulted in a significant drop in organised crime in her home country.

While in reality it is booming like never before: A new report has concluded that organized crime is putting the brakes on growth in the Stockholm region. And one of the most lucrative divisions focuses on human trafficking

Pretoria's metro police have arrested 40 people in a crackdown on brothels, sex workers and their clients. They seized heroin, crack cocaine and a variety of drug paraphernalia.

They are using the recently promulgated Sexual Offences Act, which allows