Call for change of Irish law on prostitution

‘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

Increase in violence against women during Christmas period

Irish women experience more frequent and more severe abuse during festive seasons, and the number of incidents of financial abuse is increasing this year, according to a press release from Women’s Aid.

Deirdre Campbell, Manager of the Women’s Aid National Freephone Helpline said:

“There are specific ways in which the Christmas period impacts on the way women are abused. Abusive men may be at home more over Christmas or may be drinking more. While alcohol is not responsible for domestic violence it does act as a dis-inhibitor for abusive men and this may lead to more violent episodes. Also, there is a notable increase of financial abuse”.

In the press release, Women’s Aid stated that financial abuse reported includes withholding money for Christmas presents and food; where the relationship has ended the abusive partner may withhold child maintenance; and forcing the woman to take debt in her name to meet the family financial needs.

The organisation highlighted that many forms of domestic abuse often continue after couples have split up, and that the extra stress surrounding Christmas has led to high numbers of women reporting financial abuse by their boyfriends, husbands and partners, as well as by ex-partners and ex-husbands.

Tagged: Domestic violence, Recession, Violence against women, Women's Aid

Another brilliant campaign from Rape Crisis Scotland

Campaigns by Rape Crisis Scotland have been featured on Feminist.ie several times, as they are brilliant in addressing the victim-blaming myth.

Last month, another new great campaign was released, directing the focus away from the victims and onto the perpetrators.

Sadly, festive seasons such as Christmas usually lead to a peak in the numbers of rape and sexual assault, so the campaign is well timed, and will hopefully reach out to a wide range of people.

Tagged: Rape, Rape Crisis Campaings, Sexualised violence, Violence against women

Would you interfere if your neighbour was subjected to domestic violence?

A shocking video posted on YouTube by the South African organisation People Against Women Abuse shows residents in a neighbourhood in Johannesburg being quick to complain about a guy playing drums, but not reacting to the noise of domestic violence.

Fran Luckin, creator of the film, said to the Guardian:

We weren’t sure what was going to happen. We were astonished. People complained about the drums within minutes. We played the sound of domestic violence three times and there was nothing.

It’s a horrendous sound – we really took it over the top. We were hiding in the house and thought somebody would come with a gun, but they just looked away. It was a real eye-opener. I think nobody really believes that someone dies in a domestic argument.

While we are over half way into this year’s 16 Days of Action, the international campaign highlighting violence against women, I wonder if a similar experiment would have a different outcome in Ireland. Although the answer to that question is unknown, the below statistics from Women’s Aid sadly give little indication that 2010 will be the last year requiring 16 Days of Action:

Over 14,000 incidents of domestic violence in Ireland were disclosed to the Women’s Aid National Freephone Helpline in 2009.

The year before 10,401 applications for protective orders under the Domestic Violence Act was made.

In a one-day survey by SAFE Ireland on 4th November 2009, 368 women and 291 children were accommodated and/or received support from a domestic violence service; 184 helpline calls were received from women; 11 women and 16 children were admitted to refuge while 6 women could not be accommodated due to lack of space.

Since 1996, 166 women have been murdered in the Republic. 102 women (61%) were killed in their own homes.

Tagged: Domestic violence, Violence against women, Women's Aid

Immigrant women in the U.S. food industry powerless to protect themselves from sexual abuse

Undocumented women working in the U.S. food industry are regularly exploited and humiliated, and are viewed as ‘perfect victims’ by sexual predators, according to a new report.

Sexual harassment and violence is a constant threat, said the women interviewed in the report ‘Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry’.

In addition to the commonplace exploitation of immigrant workers, undocumented female workers also suffer from the gendered aspects of abuse.

They are isolated, vulnerable due to the lack of legal status, generally have little knowledge of their rights and are thought to lack credibility.

Many do not report the abuse and attacks out of fear of losing their jobs or being deported. As women are often the primary carers for their children, such fears are often more widespread among women than men. Losing their job might mean that they will be unable to support their family. Deportation could even mean being separated from them.

The men harassing and abusing them are often their supervisors or other men who the women depend on to keep their jobs as well as for practical aspects of the job, such as transportation to and from the fields.

In a similar report from California released in the mid 90’s, a worker told the the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that one of the fields was referred to as the ‘field of panties’, because so many women had been raped by their supervisors there.

These women are some of the most vulnerable women in our society. They work under excruciating conditions for extremely low wages. They have few entitlements, and often face too many barriers to execute the few entitlements they are aware of. Their human rights are grossly violated.

Lack of papers does not justify the constant fear of and actual sexual harassment and abuse, just as it does not justify all the other forms of abuse these women endure on a daily basis.

No woman should be the ‘perfect victim’ of rape and sexual abuse.

This report has identified these women as just that. We can not allow for them to be identified, but not helped.

Tagged: Immigration, Rape, Sexual Abuse, Sexual violence, U.S., Violence against women

RCNI confirms continuously low report rates for rape and sexual assault

Illustration from Flickr

The Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) launched the National Rape Crisis Statistics 2009 yesterday . The numbers confirmed that rape and sexual assault is still grossly underreported in Ireland, with only 26 per cent of survivors attending the rape crisis centres reporting the assault to the Gardaí.

The numbers also showed that a shocking 69 per cent of survivors of childhood sexual abuse had been abused by more than one perpetrator. Only 3 per cent had been abused by a stranger, indicating that the vast majority of perpetrators are family members or members of the family’s social circle.

The report also showed that rape and sexual abuse by someone known and most likely trusted is also a common occurrence amongst adults. Statistics from the 13 rape crisis centres showed that almost one third of sexual violence against adult women was by a current or ex-partner.

The statistics provide valuable information about sexual violence in Ireland, a subject by many claimed to be under-researched.

Earlier this week, the RCNI called for ‘urgent changes’ in legislation regarding sexual abuse after a man was acquitted for oral rape of a woman with an intellectual disability due to a legal loophole.

The law specifically addressing the vulnerability of people with an intellectual disability to sexual crimes (Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993, Section 5) only name ‘sexual intercourse’ and ‘act of buggery’ and thus excludes a whole range of sexual acts.

Commenting on the specific case, the judge said that it seemed like the Oireachtas ‘did not fully appreciate the range of offences needed to give protection to the vulnerable’ when they introduced the act, and that it was  ’with great reluctance’ he asked the jury to return the not-guilty verdict.

Tagged: Law, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence against women

The police service of Northern Ireland needs to Be SMART

Between April and September this year, reported rapes and attempted rapes in Northern Ireland has increased by 10 per cent.

‘If the figures continue to increase for the next six months we will be looking at the largest number of recorded rape offences within recent years’, detective Chief Inspector Don Glass said in a statement to the BBC this week.

In an attempt to fight the problem, the police service of Northern Ireland has relaunched the ‘Be SMART Anti Rape Campaign’. Posters and advertisements for the campaign will be placed in colleges and entertainment venues. It’s great that the police are taking this horrific increase seriously, and that measures are taken to combat it. The Be SMART campaign is, however, not a good answer.

The campaign consists of two parts ; one is directed towards women (presented in pink) and one towards men (presented in blue). On the positive side, the campaign addresses both women and men, and the part directed towards men is not bad.

Unfortunately, the rest of it is in dire need of change. Firstly, the use of the word ‘smart’ has no place in an anti-rape campaign. Being raped or not has nothing to do with being smart, and insinuating that it does is a horrific insult to people who are struggling with the consequences of an assault. The use of the word also feeds the myth that some women are responsible for being raped, and that certain behaviour or choice of clothes makes rape justifiable. This myth keeps people from reporting rapes, and can make the process of recovery even more difficult.

With the Be SMART campaign however, there aren’t just insinuations feeding this myth. This campaign is putting it blatantly out there (Even after seeing this poster many times, a feeling of disbelief still washes over me every time I read it):

First of all, drinking alcohol is not grooming yourself for rape. Secondly, alcohol is not a rape drug. A rape drug is something a calculated rapist slips into your drink to make you less able to resist the assault he is planning. Thirdly, rape is more complicated than the sum of alcohol units consumed.

There are great anti-rape campaigns in the UK, such as Not Ever, a campaign dedicated to challenge woman-blaming attitudes. To combat the horrific crime of rape, the Northern Ireland police service (along with many others) needs to address the real issues, not to conform to myths and victim-blaming. It’s time for a revision of their campaign, maybe with some input and advice from some of the very good organisations out there that work with survivors of rape and sexual assault every day.

Little interference by the Garda allows sham marriages to flourish in Ireland

Illustration from stock.xchng

Recently there have been several investigations into so-called ‘sham marriages’, where women are trafficked into Ireland to marry Asian men.

By marring EU-nationals, the men secure European passports, enabling them to work, live and travel throughout the EU.

Sandra Zalcmane, head of Shelter Safe House, a Latvian NGO offering support to victims of human trafficking, has earlier said to the Irish Times that the number of girls and women they support after sham marriages has increased over the last year, and that Ireland and Cyprus are the most common destinations for such marriages. Zalcmane also said that the organisation has helped many women who has been raped and suffered sexual abuse related to sham marriages.

Arturs Vaisla, head of the Latvian police’s human trafficking unit, claims that organisers started to use force, fraud, rape and mass rape in 2009, when they realised that the Irish police could not do anything, and that they kept silent about the problem.

At the moment, entering a sham marriage is not illegal in Ireland. In many other countries, including Germany, France and Belgium these issues  are tackled by legislation, and registrars can postpone or cancel a wedding if they suspect foul play. A Latvian-English interpretor working in Ireland claims many marriages are obviously bogus, but that despite this, he has never seen a registrar block a marriage.

Officials at the Latvian ministry of foreign affairs last month told the Irish Times that they have tracked hundreds of women coming to Ireland to enter marriages with Non-EU nationals, but that they were ‘very frustrated by the slow response of the Government to the problem’. Latvian officials have been trying to combat sham marriages since 2006, but says the feedback from Irish authorities has been minimal.

The Irish Government has issued new guidelines to marriage registrars in a bid to reduce the number of sham marriages, but recent news stories prove that this has had little or no effect.

Just this week, another story about two women rescued by Garda in Dublin broke. The Garda broke into a flat where the women had been locked in for several days. The women had been told that they would travel to Ireland to work, but were met by two men who told them they would get married. When the women refused, they were locked in a bedroom. The women were able to contact friends in Latvia via a hidden mobile phone, who again alerted the Latvian police.

Next week Fine Gael will propose in the Dáil that the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2010 should be amended to make it a criminal offence to voluntarily participate in, or organise sham marriages.

Many who have experienced domestic, sexual and homophobic violence unhappy with court procedures and sensitivity of gardaí

A new report ordered by The Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime has found that a high number of victims of crime are unhappy with the gardaí’s dealing of their case and with their experience of being in court.

Many victims reported that they were worried about further harassment and double victimisation if deciding to report their case.

Overall, seven out of ten were satisfied or very satisfied with the sensitivity of gardaí when taking a statement. However, a number of respondents having experienced domestic violence, sexual abuse or homophobic violence said that the gardaí were insensitive when taking their statement.

It was recommended that a number of gardaí officers from all departments should receive specialist training in dealing with members of the public who have suffered such violence. An Garda Síochána already have the established The Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Investigation Unit (DVSAIU) which ‘provides advice, guidance and assistance to Gardaí investigating child sexual abuse, other sexual crimes and domestic violence’.

The report also found that 55 per cent of the people surveyed were unhappy with their experience in court. According to the Irish Independent, such negative expereinces were related to ‘delays, lack of information, court layouts, the organisation of hearings, the sensitivity of legal staff and the handling of victim impact statements, overcrowded courtrooms, an inability to hear the proceedings, lack of seating or separate waiting areas and intimidation’.

When presented with photographs of the courtrooms, it’s not difficult to imagine that the size and layout could potentially lead to intimidating encounters between perpetrator and witness.

Image from specialistjoinerygroup.co.uk

Image from communityvoice.ie

The new Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin does however provide ‘retiring rooms within secure and segregated circulation’ and, according to their website, the accommodation for vulnerable witnesses is on a par with the best in the world.

The report also recommended that number of Gay Liaison Officers should be increased. An Garda Síochána already works closely with the LGBT community. The official Garda LGB Network, ‘G Force’, to support LGB members of the force was set up in 2009, and last month, An Garda Síochána won ‘Employer of the year’ at the Annual Gay and Lesbian Awards.

A high number of the respondents (88.5 per cent)  said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the Crime Victims Helpline, and similar high levels of satisfaction were expressed for other involved support organisations.

Role Model of the Week: Siobhan O’Connor

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.