Posts Categorised ‘Prostitution’
Feb
02
‘Turn Off The Red Light‘, a campaign to end sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in Ireland, was launched in Dublin today.
The main goal of the campaign is to reform Irish legislation on prostitution.
The more than 30 groups running the campaign, including Ruhama, Immigrant Council of Ireland, ICTU and Barnardos believe that the best way to end prostitution is to tackle the demand.
By criminialising the people who buy sex, rather than the ones who sell it, the high numbers of trafficked and prostituted people will decrease, according to the members of the alliance.
David Begg, General Secretary of ICTU said “Having legislation in place that says we, as a society, do not believe it is acceptable for someone to buy another’s body for sexual gratification, exploiting the poverty, past history of abuse or limited life choices of the person being bought, would send a very clear message that we are a society committed to equality”.
The approach of targeting buyers has proved successful in Sweden, Norway and Iceland. According to Ruhama, the number of people exploited in street prostitution in Sweden has halved since such legislation was introduced in 1999. The organisation also highlighted the powerful fact that Barcelona and Stockholm, two European cities with approximately 1.5 m citizens each, have respectively 20,000 and 200 women involved in street prostitution.
Last year, the UN identified Ireland as a destination country for victims of trafficking.
Mr Cunningham, (Chair, Immigrant Council of Ireland) said: “Our current approach to tackling sex trafficking is not working. Women and children continue to be trafficked into prostitution in Ireland because it remains profitable. Tackling the demand for commercial sex that makes prostitution profitable for pimps and traffickers is the key to preventing exploitation.”
A high number of people attended the launch, and the feedback was unanimously positive.
If this initiative is successful, Ireland could, together with some of the Nordic countries, be a fantastic role model for the fight against prostitution and sex trafficking.
Tagged: Legislation, Legislation on prostitution, Prostitution, Trafficking, Violence against women
Oct
07
Limerick has seen an increase in prostitution over the last years. Since the start of the year, more than 40 women working in prostitution have been charged and up to 14 brothels have been detected by the Gardaí in Limerick alone.
Last week Gardaí discovered at least two underage girls in a one of the brothels.
Today, Siobhan O’Connor, Advocacy and Campaigns Officer of Doras Luimní, said to the Irish Examiner that Limerick people were allowing such exploitation to happen by turning a blind eye to the underage brothel.
She pointed out that the discovery of underage girls means that there are people in the city thinking it’s okay to sexually exploit a child.
O’Connor further said that people in Limerick facilitate the sexual exploitation of young women through their actions:
By renting apartments and houses to brothel-keepers we are allowing it to happen. By not reporting when we see suspicious behaviour we are allowing it to happen. By using the services offered by brothels and escort agencies we are allowing it happen.
she continued:
By having a laugh with your mates after the match, after the stressful week in work and using a brothel we are allowing it happen. We as a society, as the people of Limerick are allowing rape to happen.
Every single time a client uses these services he is committing rape and sexual assault, and he thinks this is OK.
Thank you, Siobhan O’Connor for highlighting the responsibility of the people actually buying girls and women and shifting the focus from the woman to the punter.
A big step towards tackling prostitution is by members of the society working together, by not allowing pimps and traffickers to establish brothels in their local area and by reporting suspicious behaviour. All the links in the chain needs to be addressed, and publicly stressing the role of the punter and the greater society rather than brushing it under the carpet as if it was a matter between the woman and the Gardaí, is a good start.
Aug
27
Photo from www.rte.ie
In an interview shown at RTÉ’s Prime Time yesterday Chief Executive for Ruhama, Sarah Benson, confirmed that a number of women supported by Ruhama’s services are victims of trafficking.
John Mooney, Crime Correspondent for the Sunday Times, critisised the lack of determination from the authorities to tackle the problem. He said that there are many reasons why trafficking is flourishing in Ireland:
[Firstly] because there is a demand there and secondly, and no one likes to say this, but the authorities are not really doing anything to stop this. An Garda Síochána is one of the few police forces in Europe that doesn’t have a dedicated and national vice unit. The Garda Commisioner has resisted all calls to set up one.
Prostitution (buying and selling sexual services) is not illegal in Ireland. Operating brothels, pimping and soliciting in a public space is.
In an poor attempt to keep up with the growth of trafficking, the Human Trafficking Act was passed in 2008. The Act states that buying sexual favours from a person who has been trafficked is a criminal offence. As argued on Prime Time yesterday however, to prove that someone was aware that the person they encountered was in fact trafficked is almost impossible.
Another limitation of the Act is that the narrow definition of a victim of trafficking. Mooney argued yesterday that the current definition excludes a high number of trafficked women who do not fulfill all of the ‘criteria’ set out in the legislation.
Denise Charleton, from the Immigrant Council of Ireland, spoke of countries such as Sweden where purchase of sexual favours have been banned altogether, and where the buyer rather than the seller is prosecuted. She said that members of the Immigration Council intend to visit Sweden in September to see how this legislation was implemented and whether it would be possible to implement something similar in Ireland.
Charleton argued that legislation focusing on prosecution of the buyer (also implemented on Iceland and in Norway) is a way of recognising that purchase of sex involves exploitation:
They’ve basically said it’s not ok to buy women and girls, because if you buy women and girls you are the link in a chain of organised crime that is making profit out of the exploitation and rape of young women and girls
The UN’s Trafficking Report for 2010 confirms that Ireland is a destination for women, men and children subjected to forced prostitution.
The edition of Prime Time is available on RTÉ’s website until September 16th.
Aug
23
Enjoying a pint at the pub last night, I overheard a troubling conversation. On the table next to me were one woman and three men. I don’t know what led up to their discussion, but I started listening in when I heard the following:
Woman: ‘Do you seriously mean that nurses should F**K their patients as part of their job?’
Man 2, frantically; ‘Shhhhhhhhh!!!’.
M1, obviously quite embarrassed: ‘Ehhhm, errrrr, maybe not errrrrr, intercourse, but just take care of….you know….’
W: ‘Hand jobs, giving people hand jobs, do you really think that’s part of their job?’
M2 again: ‘Jesus, shhhhhhhh!’
M1 then offered an ‘explanation’ for his opionions, and asked the woman: ‘So, say you have a patient, and you have to cut his arm off or else he will die? What would you do?’
W: ‘I would cut his arm off’
M1: ‘See?’ (?)
M2: ‘He proves a point.’ (?)
W: ‘That’s totally different. Nobody has ever died from being horny.’
M1: ‘Well, that depends on you mental state.’
W: ‘Well, you might wish you were dead, but you still won’t die from it.’
Summarised, these two men thought that a carer/nurse should perform acts as part of their jobs that they themselves were too embarrassed to say out loud. Even to hear other people say it out loud was too much for them. The men were shrugging and ‘shhhhhhh’-ing when the woman put their opinions into words, but as soon as that part of the conversation was over, their opinion was crystal clear. There was no shrugging or embarrassment related to their appalling opinions, just to the words describing those opinions. If someone had chosen to become a nurse/carer, performing sexual favours was part of their job.
You might think that’s the worst part, but it’s not.
This is the worst part:
They were all doctors.
Yes, you read right; they were all doctors.
I wish I could say that this is the first I’ve heard of this topic, but unfortunately it’s not. I’ve heard nurses mentioning it before. One thing, they said, is the sexual harassment they experience occasionally. Another is the genuine expectation of sexual favours from some patients.
I even talked to a nurse who got in trouble with her supervisors because a patient refused to have anything to do with her and a number of other nurses. It later turned out that the reason the patient refused contact with these nurses was that they rejected his requests for sexual favours, whereas (without their colleagues knowledge) others didn’t.
This all links to another debate recently triggered by the news of a disabled British man who was given an allowance from the state to visit a brothel in Amsterdam: is sex a human right?
I don’t think it is. Prostitution is part of, and feeds violence against women. I can see why disabled people buying sex from prostitutes can be a subject for debate, but I still disagree with it. When it comes to nurses and carers though, I have serious difficulties seeing how a debate can be necessary.There is a simple answer to it, and that answer is no. It is not any nurse or any carer’s job to be involved in their patient’s sexual desires.
And I doubt that the doctors in the pub would ever suggest anything else to a male nurse.
Aug
16
One might agree or disagree with the media coverage of the release of rapist Larry Murphy, but one thing is for sure: it has stirred up some needed debate and highlighted some dark sides of Irish society.
One aspect of the debate is the major contradiction of Murphy refusing therapy in jail vs. Murphy being released early for good behaviour. Second, there is the official labeling of Murphy as a ‘high-risk offender’ vs. Murphy being released at all.
Is the Irish penal system working? Is it reasonable that high-risk offenders who have not undertaken any form of treatment programmes while in prison are released rather than forced into some form of treatment to reduce the risk of re-offending?
One of the other discussions that has been prevalent in the media lately, is the protection of privacy vs. the public interest regarding sex offenders. Ireland is quite high up there on the list of European countries forgiving of name-and-shame media approaches. The view that offenders like Murphy has given up their right to privacy by committing horrific acts is widespread amongst the Irish media. The recent high court decision where serial rapist Michael Murray’s privacy claims were outweighed by the public interest in knowing his whereabouts, however makes it seem unlikely that Murphy will be spared publicity on human rights grounds.
It is clear that Murphy’s release and the media storm around it has sparked public concern. Two days ago, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre reported an increase in calls to their Helpline after RTÉ’s Prime Time programme Thursday.
Today, yet another aspect of the debate emerged. Women working in prostitution are being warned to be on guard as it is thought that Murphy will seek to pay for sex once he is not longer under daily tracking. Commenting on this, Geraldine Rowley from Ruhama said:
Women in prostitution are at risk every single day – not just when a known sex offender is out of prison. There are a lot of dangerous men out there and there is a huge level of violence, but it goes unreported most of the time.
Rowley added that these concerns are always on the minds of women in the sex industry.
It is a distressing fact that these women, in addition to all the other risks involved in prostitution, are faced with the chance of running into convicted high-risk sex offenders; and that if they do, the likelihood that any authorities will care, is very small.
