Nov 21, 2011
Guest Post: Van Turnhout on Criminalising the Purchase of Sex
We delighted to welcome this guest post from Senator Jillian Van Turnhout on the efforts of the Independent Group in the Seanad to criminalise the purchase of sex.
On 12 October 2012, the Independent Group of Senators tabled a motion in Seanad Éireann to criminalise the purchase of sex in Ireland in order to curb prostitution and trafficking. The impetus for the motion was twofold. First, recognition that demand for prostitution in Ireland is intrinsically linked to increased cases of woman and girls being trafficked into and around Ireland for sexual exploitation. Second, recognition that trafficking for sexual exploitation is a modern form of slavery, an egregious human rights abuse and a violation of international law.
Having given my consideration to a number of arguments against criminalising the purchase of sex in Ireland, I find myself unconvinced by them. One argument contends that criminalising the purchase of sex violates a sex worker’s right to exercise self-determination over their own body. I must respectfully disagree. It is my belief that when we peel away the complex layers of how and why women, and to a lesser extent men and boys, sell their bodies for the sexual gratification of others, it is clear that the path into prostitution did not start with the simple exercise of their right to self-determination over their body. Indeed, research indicates that a significant number of women end up in prostitution as a result of poverty, debt, homelessness, addiction, or having been groomed by a partner, family member or friend. Many will have experienced serious abuse or neglect in childhood or early adulthood.
I believe that the inherent coercion, whether the result of violence or economic hardship, and the exploitative nature of the sex industry, which in Ireland alone is estimated to be worth €250 million each year, renders free and informed consent to prostitution all but impossible. Furthermore, for those who argue in defence of prostitution on the basis of consent, I would ask these people to be mindful that the age identified internationally for entry into prostitution is 14, an age at which consent cannot be given.
The Turn Off the Red Light Campaign (TORL) to end prostitution and sex trafficking in Ireland has done tremendous work in this area. Most TROL members are civil society groups and NGOs that have direct experience of the devastating effects prostitution can have on women, children and men involved in its practice. These devastating effects are physical, such as sexually transmitted infections, injuries sustained as the result of beatings and rapes, gynaecological difficulties owing to multiple terminations, and many other health complications relating to prostitution. There are also mental and emotional injuries, deeply embedded in the psyche of sex workers and victims of trafficking, which they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. As devastating as these effects are for adults, the impact is almost unimaginable for children and child victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. I am particularly concerned about the vulnerability of homeless and separated children in Ireland to prostitution and trafficking.
Focus Ireland has estimated that as many as 1,500 children are homeless in Ireland each year. 800 of them are unaccompanied, and a quarter of these are under the age of 12. Inadequate resourcing in this area, coupled with an insufficient number of places for children in safe, sheltered accommodation, is said to be forcing some children to resort to prostitution to survive. An increase in substance abuse amongst homeless youths, particularly males, has also seen increased recourse to prostitution. There is evidence to suggest that boys as young as 13 are involved in prostitution in Dublin City. Cognisant of the link between youth homelessness and child prostitution, and in addition to the introduction of the legislation called for in our Seanad motion, I believe that the Government needs to breathe life into its pledge to address the issue of existing homelessness, with a specific focus on youth homelessness, by reviewing and updating the existing Homeless Strategy.
Separated children or unaccompanied minors are defined as being under 18 years of age, separated from both of their parents or their legal/customary primary caregiver, and outside their country of origin. Separated children are an extremely vulnerable group owing to their unaccompanied status. Many have experienced war and violence, and some have been trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation. There have been a number of improvements in the situation for separated children in Ireland under the Ryan Report Implementation Plan, particularly in relation to accommodation arrangements. Measures are also being taken to tackle false family reunifications through the use of DNA identification.
Nevertheless, instances of children going missing from care are of deep and ongoing concern. Minister of State for Disability, Equality and Mental Health, Kathleen Lynch TD informed the Seanad debate that there are 16 cases of children missing in Ireland still outstanding in 2010 alone, and 11 of those are unaccompanied minors. There is strong anecdotal evidence that a number of these children could have been trafficked into prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation. In September 2011, the Children’s Rights Alliance submitted to the Department of Justice and Equality’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit collated case studies of suspected and confirmed child victims of trafficking in Ireland. The case studies paint a dreadful picture of exploitation and include:
A 15 year old Somali rescued from a brothel in 2006 after being trafficked into Ireland; a 16 year old Nigerian girl who arrived to Ireland as a separated child in 2009 and was enticed out of HSE residential care by a man who later got her involved in prostitution; and a 16 year old girl from Burundi, held captive in a house in Co. Louth and abused. She had been taken from her village in Africa at the age of 12 and introduced into sex slavery in different countries before being trafficked to Ireland for more sexual exploitation. I have also heard dreadful accounts by an NGO, which were subsequently documented, of Eastern European girls as young as 14 being trafficked to Ireland, brutally and systematically raped over a number of days to “break them in,” before being shipped off to various brothels around the country.
These are just a few examples, but I fear they represent just the tip of the iceberg. This is an intolerable situation. The sex industry in Ireland is extremely lucrative. Children continue to be victims of prostitution and trafficking because it is good business for organised criminals and traffickers.
After much research into the issue, I firmly believe that legislation is needed. I was very disappointed that our motion did not succeed on 12 October. Instead, the Government proposed a six-month timeframe in which to hold a considered public debate before the issue is revisited. I look forward to this renewed debate. As Leader of the Independent Group of Senators, I have extended a number of invitations to the Turn Off the Blue Light Campaign, a sex worker led association campaigning against calls to criminalise the purchase of sex in Ireland, to come and discuss their concerns with the authors of the motion. They have indicated that they will do so after completion of a survey they are currently undertaking with sex workers.
Readers may be interested in following the debate as it unfolded in the Seanad;
http://www.kildarestreet.com/sendebates/?id=2011-10-12.192.0
The diagnosis of the disease is spot on, but I’m not sure about the prescrption. Implicit in the above is the fact that there are different gradations of injuriousness in prostitution – though one might want to prevent all prostitution, the Senator quite reasonably suggests (correct me my interpretation is wrong)that trafficked sex slaves and child prostitutes are a bigger problem than more run-of the-mill in quantitive terms (there may be more of them) and qualititive terms (prostitution plus slavery/imprisonment is worse than prostitution operating from one’s flat, prostitution of a child with all their vulnerabilities is worse than prostitution of an adult who may have slightly less vulnerabilities). Surely, in a country with severe resourcing issues, it is better to use police time and personnel tackling difficult child prostitution and the trafficking of women than indiscriminately rounding up johns who may be neither violent nor abusive who may be dealing with women who (in so far as one can see) practice sex trade voluntarily. None of this is to say the happy hooker phenomenon is widespread or that choice is fully voluntary. However, it’s not quite using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but it all sounds very scattergun when better well-targeted approach is imperative. Criminalisation has never to my knowledge made significant inroads in prevention – they key is surely to work smarter, not harder
As a more general point and unrelated to the Senator’s post, the cause isn’t helped by the incoherence of insisting on the freedom of women to do whatever they want with their bodies in certain situations and denying the efficacy of that choice where the argument is convenient.
This article is very misleading to the public, the senators in the seanad were not fully informed about sex work, they had not sought any sex workers opinions before attempting to bring in the motion.
The sex workers do not want to have their rights taken away by a bunch of people promoting lies about their lives in order to remove their rights.
Senator Mary White was one of the only intelligent ones there that wanted the motion stopped, cause it was being rushed in too fast without any real informative consultation that would expose the swedish law as bad and injust.
The organisations with an anti-sex-work mentality such as ruhama and the immigrant council of ireland are trying to remove sex workers rights and they tell lies about sex workers and they are trying to create trouble for sex workers in ireland, by trying to discriminate against them.
The anti-sex-work group ruhama was founded by the same organisations that ran the magdalene laundries where irish women were enslaved and forced to live in the most awful conditions where they suffered atrocious abuse by nuns, some of the women trapped in those laundries were actually sex workers thrown out of the monto area, into the abusive magdalene asylums.
The same organisations that ran the magdalene laundries, are the trustees of ruhama, who also has members from those magdalene organisations on its board of directors there, also the immigrant council of irelands founder was a nun that had to apologise to people cause of the abuse that went on the magdalene laundries while the likes of her were there in charge of exploited victims.
If this website was serious about human rights in ireland, then they would be defending sex workers rights and their clients rights.
And it is wrong to suggest that sex workers sell their body, they do not sell their body, they sell a service to their client, some of which involves not always sex, but massage or going with their client out to dinner or a social event etc.
There is so much disinformation being spread about sex work by ruhama, and it also a disgrace that more of the public does not recognise or realise that ruhamas trustees are the same groups that committed atrocious human rights infringements in their magdalene laundries that enslaved thousands of irish women, thats the real human rights abuse scandal in ireland, and the government still funds the organisations that have a connection to the magdalene laundries such as ruhama and the immigrant council of ireland. An absolute disgrace and an insult to the many victims of the magdalene asylums.
I do not understand why the sex industry hates the christian organisations so much. It is completely sick so much hate. Maybe it’s because the christian organisations show the world how the sex industry destroy people.It’s very common among punters to hate groups like Ruhama.
By the way Sandra, are you really a prostitute or are you a punter pretending to be a prostitute. A punter who don’t want to loose the free access to prostitutes and trafficking victims.
If you want to know why it is not possible to make the sex industry legal just watch these links from Australias ABC program Four Corners and the Herald: Legal brothels linked to international sex trafficking rings
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/legal-brothels-linked-to-international-sex-trafficking-rings-20111009-1lfxs.html#ixzz1eTAzzOaD
New Zealand childprostitution on the streets of Manukau http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAtFtLLPkAc&feature=related
Cases mentioned in the OSCE Analysing the Business Model of Trafficking in Human Beings to Better Prevent the Crime
Most of the cases are mentioned in Appendix 1 pages 91 – read cases 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 14.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/rcpp/assets/attachments/1154_osce_business_model_original.pdf
United Nations, We can end prostitution and trafficking for sexual exploitation now!
“Sexual exploitation and trafficking for this purpose are driven by the demand for sexual services, therefore it is the demand that needs to be tackled if we are to effectively combat the phenomena. Sweden since 1999, and Norway and Iceland since 2009 have legislation criminalizing the purchase of sexual services. In Sweden, where the law has been in effect the longest, prostitution has been reduced and trafficking has been kept at bay (whereas both have risen dramatically in neighboring countries that do not tackle the demand in their legislation or policies). Importantly, the legislation has also affected societal attitudes, and most Swedes – especially the youth – reject the idea of purchasing another person for sex. Other countries, Including Ireland and France, are currently considering adopting similar legislation.”
http://www.create4theun.eu/we-can-end-prostitution-and-trafficking-for-sexual-exploitation-now/
Siddharth Kara, Special to CNN http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/01/juju-oaths-ensnare-trafficking-victims-mind-body-and-soul/
You do not understand sex workers and the rights they need.
Strange how you think its sick when people hate christian organisations, you should realise that christian organisations had or maybe still has priests that were guilty of harming little children by raping them and then giving them orders in mass the next day, you should also realise that the magdalene laundry had thousands of irish women enslaved in them where they suffered enormous abuse, suffering and hardship, that is real slavery.
Christian organisations should never be talking about anything regarding sex full stop.
Now dear Aram you should also realise that ruhamas trustees are the same organisations that had thousands of irish women enslaved where they suffered abuse at the hands of sick nuns, you should also realise that nuns from the groups that ran the magdalene laundries in ireland are on the board of directors at ruhama, this group ruhama now wants to remove sex workers rights to equality in ireland.
The trustees and members of ruhamas board of directors have a lot to answer for, the same two nuns on ruhamas boards of directors refused to meet a justice for magdalenes organisation, yet that group ruhama still feel its more important to promote discrimination against sex workers.
The christian organisations showed the whole world how they destroyed peoples lives, piests abusing little boys and nuns abusing innocent vulnerable women etc.
Your love and sympathy for those christian organisations is quite disturbing Aram.
By the way, feel free to call sex workers rights activists, a prostitute, a punter, a pimp or whatever abusive insult you can conjur up, just like senator mullens said that the amendment on sex work written by a government official could have been written by a pimp, you lot are all the same.
Thankfully more wiser people in the irish government are starting to see the danger of the swedish laws against sex workers.
The sex workers opinions need to be heard in society, no matter how much ruhama attempts to silence and discriminate against them.
As i thought, you are a punter. I find it very disturbing, that the organisations as IUSW which claims to be speaking on behalf of the prostitutes are controlled by punters, supporters and owners of brothels and not the prostitutes.
@Aram spot on! its the punters and moneymakers in the industry whos trying to justify their infidelity and cheating to wifes and girlfriends.
Looks like Aram and Brigit think that all sex workers righters rights activists and pro sex workers rights organisations are punters and owners of brothels, even though almost all the sex workers workers rights organisations are run by the sex workers themselves and their female supporters.
Seems like they think the sex workers alliance organisations and IUSW is also controlled by punters and pimps.
What a disturbing false sense of reality these people have.
Brigit and Aram are so wrong and naive.
Some people like them wonder why the catholic church and its affiliates are not liked in ireland, this is an example of why people are against the church.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) is one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government to investigate the extent and effects of abuse on children from 1936 onwards. It is is commonly known in Ireland as the Ryan Commission.
The Commission’s remit was to investigate all forms of child abuse in Irish institutions for children; the majority of allegations it investigated related to the system of sixty residential “Reformatory and Industrial Schools” operated by Catholic Church orders, funded and supervised by the Irish Department of Education.
The Commission’s report said testimony had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential, that some religious officials encouraged ritual beatings and consistently shielded their orders amid a “culture of self-serving secrecy”, and that government inspectors failed to stop the abuses.
Among the more extreme allegations of abuse were beatings and rapes, subjection to naked beatings in public, being forced into oral sex and even subjection to beatings after failed rape attempts by the brothers. The abuse has been described by some as Ireland’s Holocaust. The UK based Guardian newspaper, described the abuse as “the stuff of nightmares”, citing the adjectives used in the report as being particularly chilling: “systemic, pervasive, chronic, excessive, arbitrary, endemic”.
Witnesses described a daily existence that involved the possibility of being hit by a staff member at any time, for any reason or for no reason. Witnesses also reported being physically abused by co-residents. It is notable that witnesses at times described daily, casual and random physical abuse as normal and wished to report only the times when the frequency and severity of the abuse was such that they were injured or in fear for their lives. Three hundred and forty six (346) of the 403 witnesses reported that they were subjected to frequent physical violence; they described a climate of pervasive fear in the Schools and provided consistent reports of generally not knowing why they were being beaten and sexually abused.
The locations where physical abuse was reported to have taken place included: classrooms, offices, cloakrooms, dormitories, showers, infirmaries, refectories, the bedrooms of staff members, churches, work areas and trade shops, fields, farmyards, play/sports areas and outdoor sheds.
Witness report of irish church abuse: I had a hiding in the boot room, you had to take your shirt off, you were completely naked and he …(Br X)… beat me with a strap and a hurley stick on the behind and the legs and that.
Witness report of irish church abuse: I was beaten up quite a few times for not making the bed right, I had to go to the boot room. We used have long night shirts then you know, he …(Br X)… dragged it off me, naked and whop, he knocked hell out of me, he knocked the shit out of me … he hit with a leather strap with coins in it. One Brother … he used a tyre he did, a bicycle tyre, it used to wrap around your arm. That was for wiping my nose in my sleeve, he didn’t like that, it “wasn’t a nice thing” he said.
Witness report of irish church abuse: At night-time you’d be in your nightshirt, 2 of them would hold you down, you could be asleep or on the mark of going asleep, it was always at night time. Three of them would come in. Two of them and the third one would do the beating. The strap … (standing up demonstrating hitting)… it was done in frenzy, like they did not want to be caught….
Witness report of irish church abuse : He told me to lean over the desk and pull my pants down. I didn’t know what he was going to do …crying…. I felt something rubbing up and down against my backside. I tried to look around but the way he had me pinned down on the desk I couldn’t move, and the next thing I felt this sharp pain … it was so severe. I never felt anything like it…. After he finished he told me “you be a good boy now go out and play with the other boys” and after that I decide that I had to get out of here, and I absconded and I was brought back and I got another beating.
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Since 2001, the Irish government has acknowledged that women in the Magdalene laundries were abuse victims.
Witness report of irish magdalene laundry abuse/church abuse: Those places were the Irish gulags for women. When you went inside their doors you left behind your dignity, identity and humanity. Many never saw their families or the outside world again but lived their entire lives behind walls until they were buried in unmarked communal graves. They, in their tens of thousands, are “the disappeared” of Ireland. Many survivors refuse to talk about what they went through, but I’ve never been ashamed to have been in one of those places. The shame is not mine; the church should be ashamed. They say now they’re sorry – what they mean is, sorry they were found out.”
Witness report of irish magdalene laundry abuse/church abuse: “You had no rights, they even took your name away. The day I arrived at the laundry, one of the nuns said, ‘You can’t be called Mary’ (because it was a holy name), we’ll call you Myra, and so for two years, Myra became my name. You had no contact with your family; you weren’t even allowed to speak. When we sat in a sewing circle, or at night in the dormitory, they always put older women between us. They were the eyes and ears of the nuns, and if anyone tried to have a conversation, they’d report you. We had to pray and pray and pray, all day long – to stop us talking to the other girls, I suppose. There was no spark of light or hope – it was just living hell. I felt like a caged animal. One of the Sisters said, ‘You should be glad to be here. Your mother is a tramp and I sincerely hope you won’t turn out like her.’ To my eternal shame, I answered, ‘Yes, sister.
Some of the same organisations that abused children and women in the magdalene laundries are the trustees of ruhama who also has members of those magdalene laundry orders on its board of directors, its only right that these groups get exposed for what they are.
They are largely movements who have repressive views that are ripe with anti-womens-sexuality/promiscuity and anti-sex-workers-rights beliefs.
And naive people like Brigit and Aram would be the first to support them on their quest of disinformation and attempting to remove sex workers rights.
These people also call sex workers a prostitute in an attempt to downgrade them, sex workers prefer to be called sex workers not prostitutes.
When it comes to sex workers, the catholic organisations have no right to be intrusive in their lives, as the catholic organisations in ireland have a human rights record abuse list that warrants widescale international condemnation, Mr Kenny was very decent to have spoke about how dangerous the catholic church is.
Sex workers have a right to privacy and they do not need intrusion directed by dangerous groups like ruhama and their allies, all one has to do is look at ruhamas trustees and its board of directors and then google magdalene laundry abuse in ireland, to get a picture of the negative people that are involved.
Sex workers have every right to be given fair treatment in irish society and they have every right to stop people trying to take away their livelihood and making life difficult for them, just cause brigit fears that they will entice a husband into their bed, thats why sex workers are hated in society, its because of people like brigit who hate their non monogamous relationships.
Hope that more people get to see through the lies and discrimination of people who hate sex workers in society.
Of course you don’t like monogamy. And this should be a warning to everybody whos involved in this discussion: The prostitution industry and of course their punters hates monogamy. Monogamy represents a normal family life with a father and husband whos not destroying his family with his purchase of prostitutes. The completely opposite of the prostitution industry.
You are completely obsessed by magdalene. What is your problem man. You should focus on the women and children who are being sold, beaten up and raped every day in the sexindustry by the punters and pimps just because some men think they have the right to have their sexual needs covered by all means.
Explain this please: https://thierryschaffauser.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/iusw-fired-me/
““I’d prefer the union being a workers only group” and “my opinion does not necessarily reflect those of the IUSW … in particular on the question of … the inclusion of managers”?”
Thierry was fired because he wanted IUSW to represent the prostitutes instead of punters and managers.
La Bestia answer thread.
“La Bestia says:
November 11, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Who wants to support managers/owners being in a union for sex workers???
My decision not to join anyway was due to managers/owners being members there!
I have been an SW rights activist for 4 years, and SW for more than 20 years in 8 different brothels, and managers/owners have always rather been part of the problem than answer to SW rights to proper working conditions and right to 100 % selfdetermination.Their interests have always been profit ! or interest in securing profit for owners and being in the role as controllers!
Does anyone knows what kind of advocacy or work on behalf of SW they do in IUSW do ? – to me they are very invisible”
So, who is running IUSW? The prostitutes or punters and owners of brothels? Who is Douglas Fox?
Les Putes in Franche consists of 3 persons. A male prostitute, an elderly woman and a transvestite.
Rode Draad in The Nederlands dont care about the foreign women in the brothels and the prostitutes dont care about Rode Draad. Nowbody wants to be a member.
SIO in Denmark represents owners of sexshops, owners of brothels, pornstars, etc.
the members of Ambit Dona in Spain are not prostitutes at all. They are socialworkers. Eventhough they claim to represent all the prostitutes in Spain.
And so on.
The International Union of Sex Workers warmly welcomes the publication of “Migrant Workers in the UK Sex Industry” by Dr Nick Mai.
This is the largest ever qualitative research into the experience of migrants selling sexual services in London, and key findings are:
The large majority of interviewed migrant workers in the UK sex industry are not forced nor trafficked.
Working in the sex industry is often a way for migrants to avoid the unrewarding and sometimes exploitative conditions they meet in non-sexual jobs.
By working in the sex industry, many interviewees are able to maintain dignified living standards in the UK while dramatically improving the living conditions of their families in the country of origin.
The stigmatisation of sex work is the main problem interviewees experienced while working in the sex industry and this impacted negatively on both their private and professional lives.
The combination of the stigmatisation of sex work and lack of legal immigration documentation makes interviewees more vulnerable to violence and crime.
Interviewees generally describe relations with their employers and clients as characterised by mutual consent and respect.
Most interviewees feel that the criminalisation of clients will not stop the sex industry and that it would be pushed underground, making it more difficult for migrants working in the UK sex industry to assert their rights in relation to both clients and employers.
Catherine Stephens of the IUSW says, “We will only successfully target trafficking within the sex industry when we make policy based on evidence and in reality. There is currently a climate of fear amongst London sex workers due to police activity, that is driven by hype and misinformation promoted by NGOs with a financial vested interest in the anti-trafficking industry, who are ideologically opposed to commercial sex. It is time to set aside their ideology and emotion, and give people in the sex industry – whether from the UK or migrant – the same human rights and protection of the law as others.”
Rosie Campbell, Board member of the UK Network of Sex Work Projects, says, “UKNSWP member projects in London see thousands of sex workers a year and these findings reflect what they see. We welcome this research and hope that local and national government will use it to inform policy. For some time we have been expressing concern about the under-reporting of violent and other crimes committed against sex workers in London. Clearly there is a need for the police to work pro-actively to increase trust and confidence in them amongst sex workers and to ensure they are fulfilling their duty to provide protection to sex workers.”
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The UK and Ireland are culturally similar, therefore ireland is pretty much the same when it comes to migrant sex workers, the majority of migrant sex workers arrive in ireland to make money, because they know they can get a lot of it for the services they offer.
The united kingdom threw out the idea of putting in any dangerous swedish law, as the law is based on lies and negativity.
The anti-sex-work organisations discriminate against that influx of migrant sex workers by trying to say they are all trafficked, exploited victims, that is so untrue and that is dangerous lies being told against sex workers by the likes of certain groups in ireland, ruhama and the immigrant council of ireland in particular.
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The group that is most opposed to sex work in ireland is ruhama, its very ironic and certainly very disturbing for them to be talking about criminals and slaves when their own trustees and members of their board of directors have a history with being involved in running the magdalene laundries slave camps in ireland.
Since 2001, the Irish government has acknowledged that women in the Magdalene laundries were abuse victims. Thousands of irish female victims were trapped there, many of them died and were buried in unmarked graves. Certain members of the board of directors at ruhama would not even meet the representatives for the victims of the magdalene laundries, yet they object to sex workers non monogomaus relationships and amorous sexual freedom in irish society, they still have the repressive 1940′s catholic ireland mentality intact, such a dangerous ideology and dangerous dogma they have.
They are against the non monogomaus and amorous sexual freedom that being a sex worker allows.
The same way in the past that certain sections of catholic irish society were against sexual freedom enjoyed by women, many of the victims of the magdalene laundries were enslaved by ruhamas trustees. Just because those soon to be enslaved women showed a high spirited lifestyle.
Witness statement from survivor of magdalene slave camps as follows: we were classed as nothing, we were told that we came from nothing, we would never be anything, and we will always go back to being nothing.
Ruhama and its trustees recieve generous funding year round while they promote their wreckless ideology and dangerous dogma and campaign of terror against sex workers, and the magdalene laundry victims of ruhamas trustees do not even get one red cent of that funding, what an abomination.
Many sex workers reject ruhamas lies and opposition to their non monogomaus lifestyles.
The anti-sex-work organisations are against sexual freedom in women such as sex workers and are against the likes of any women who dress in a sexual way, same way they are against the strip clubs and any woman who uses her sexuality.
They are just celibate repressive nuns who when always had their way in the past would make every women wear long dresses below their ankles.
Of course IUSW welcome such a publication. IUSW consists of punters, managers and owners of brothels.
These trafficking women are being held in an extremely closed environment where no one speaks with authority and certainly not with people who are doing studies, which are controlled by pimps and brothel owners through threats of violence against them and their family home. So it’s very interesting that Mai has been getting so incredible results out of such a closed environment. I wonder who he has been using to make contact with the environment. Hmm!
It is also quite strange that his so-called studies are so opposite of what a capacity as Siddharth Kara, who has spent 15 years documenting the slave routes and cash flow and investigate the trade in humans in all parts of the world. Right down on brothel plan.
“‘Juju oaths’ ensnare trafficking victims mind, body and soul”
(…)
“These women told me some of the most harrowing tales of trafficking I have ever heard. Some trudged through the desert for weeks to the North African coast, where they crossed dangerous waters in rafts to Europe. Others were flown directly from Lagos to Milan, Copenhagen or London. All of them suffered extremes of rape, torture and abuse that are impossible to imagine.
A few aspects of these ordeals immediately caught my attention. Each one of the women was fiercely committed to repaying debts to their madams of up to 50,000 euros. When rescued, they often refused assistance. When asked to testify in trials, some went into fits and trances in the witness box. When deported back to Nigeria, most desperately tried to return to their madams until their debts were repaid”
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/tag/siddharth-kara-special-to-cnn/
Scroll down to the video ‘Juju oaths’ ensnare trafficking victims mind, body and soul’ with Siddharth Kara and CNN, then you will know why Mr Mais result are rather unreliable and unrealistic.
It’s also incredibly fortunate that the United Kingdom and Ireland would go almost entirely free of trade in human beings for sex industry when the rest of Europe have huge problems with trafficking. Including The Netherlands, Germany and Spain.
Catherine Stephens, a sex worker for 10 years and an activist with the International Union of Sex Workers says, “It’s time to start treating women with respect and equality, regardless of their sexual behaviour. It’s time to give people in the sex industry the same human rights as other citizens, so we can work together for safety, and call the police without fear of arrest.
Catherine Stevens does not agree with trying to take away a sex workers livelihood by trying to make the clients illegal, this is injust and wrong to attempt to remove their livelihood, sex workers reject other options that do not pay nowhere near as much as sex work does, women and men do sex work because it is rewarding and has high profitability.
Catherine Stevens has been a sex worker, she is knowledgeable on the subject of sex work.
Dr Nick Mai is Senior Research Officer in Migrations and Immigrations at ISET, the Institute for the Study of European Transformations at London Metropolitan University. His main research interest is on the negotiation of gender and sexual identities in the context of migration of subaltern groups (women, youth, sexual and ethnic minorities) from the Balkans (Albania, Romania) and North Africa (Morocco) into the EU and the associated risks and opportunities, including issues of exploitation and the engagement in illegal or irregular activities.
His credentials speaks for itself, he is highly educated.
Aram thinks that such a person would be a pimp or a brothel owner, no one in their right mind would ever take Aram seriously.
Key Findings of Dr Nick Mai’s Research : The large majority of interviewed migrant workers in the UK sex industry are not forced nor trafficked.
Thats a fact and the irish situation is the same, where the majority of migrant women are simply not forced or trafficked, they are free willing participants in adult consensual sexual exchanges.
Many migrant part time sex workers who are students have been convicted for brothel offenses in ireland, just because they do sex work in twos for safety reasons, and get reported by ignorant people in society, there are many brothel offenses in ireland that show no signs of coercion or trafficking.
Sex work is legal in ireland providing you do it alone, but many sex workers are finding themselves having criminal records because they prefer to do sex work together.
There has been no independent research done on sex workers in ireland, and if it was done, then the findings would be the same as Dr Nick Mai, where he found that the vast majority of migrant sex workers are not forced nor trafficked.
Statement from 26 year old Ukrainian sex worker Daria : Feminists are the worst, “You expect them to be on your side, yes? But instead all they do is tell me what I think and what I want. Even when I say to them ‘I sell sexual services get over it’ they keep talking.” “I didn’t want to grow old looking in toilets. I wanted to travel and I wanted to have money.”
In order to fuel the their lies and ensure the continued existence of their funding, anti-sex work organizations like ruhama are forced to adopt statistics and numbers based on inaccurate research and promote them as solid, when in fact much of it is misinformation and highly misleading.
Statement From a Sex Worker (1) in Ireland : I would like it if we had a dedicated police liaison service, with a strong public message that we are still women and violence against us will not be tolerated. It would be disaster for us to further criminalise our work. It would not stop sex work, far from it. All it would achieve is criminalisation and vilification of some decent men, make us more afraid to speak out, less visible but easily abused, and far more at risk of violence.”
Statement from a sex worker (2) in Ireland : I am an escort/sex worker, I am Irish, I have an Honours degree, I pay my taxes as an escort, even got fined for filling in my tax return one day late this year. LOL I’m Miss Disorganised. I have been able to pay off all student loans and overdrafts, bought a house and am studying for a new qualification. Since my first client I’ve never looked back. It’s the first job I have liked, not just because of the money, but because of the power, independence and self satisfaction I feel from successfully working for myself on my terms. I have gained so many benefits. I’m no longer depressed, I have amazing self confidence, I love my body, I get sex when I want it under my terms.
So far this has been the best path I have taken in my life to date.
Statement From Sex Worker (3) In Ireland : I am a 20 year old female escort working between Ireland and The UK. I am opposed to the criminalisation of sex work. Escorting for me was always a choice. One I made with my eyes wide open and have never lived to regret. For me this job has always had major benefits. It allowed me to be flexible when completing my degree, also enabling me to pay every penny of my student fees without stressing about debts. At the age of 20 I have travelled the world, been able to purchase property and been able to support my dependant.
Statement From Sex Worker (4) In Ireland : I freely without coercion do this job, but I am still slandered with stereotypes and soon may lose my right to work in a profession I choose freely. Is that not a violation of my human rights??
Why do people use the term sex worker rather than prostitute?
The term sex worker is used because when sex workers are asked about their activity they describe what they do as ‘work’ or ‘working’. Moreover, the term sex work is also used by the World Health Organisation (WHO 2001; WHO 2005) and the United Nations (UN 2006; UNAIDS 2002). The term sex worker refers to a woman or man who exchanges or trades sexual acts for money. The term sex work is also less stigmatising and has fewer moral connotations.
Banning the buying of sexual services drives activities underground and makes it more dangerous for sex workers and their clients. Real crimes in this area are less likely to be reported to the police, and health initiatives become unworkable.
It is an infantile view that all sex workers are poor helpless victims.
Some women are leaving successful careers elsewhere to enter sex work as a positive career move.
It is completely outrageous that in 21st century Ireland, someone might end up in court, or even in prison, for having sex with another consenting adult, especially if this took place in their own home.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with someone paying for sexual services. It is perfectly possible, and normal, for someone to pay a person for sexual services and to treat that person with respect. In any case, it’s up to the individual sex worker to decide whether or not being paid for sex is exploitative, and whether it’s in his/her interest to be involved in sex-work. It isn’t the job of the government to decide that for sex workers.
It is an infringement of civil liberties to prosecute a consenting man and woman or two men or two women who engage in sex in the privacy of their own room.
The proposed swedish law treats all women involved as brainless victims which is an insult to those who enjoy their work and gain a considerable amount of job satisfaction from doing their work. Women should be allowed the human right to choose to use their body how they wish. This proposed law infantilises women and treats them as idiots who cannot make rational choices for themselves.
Individual sex workers are capable of deciding for themselves what the dangers are of becoming involved in sex work, and whether becoming involved in sex work is the right thing for them. It isn’t the job of the government to make that decision for sex workers. To imply that most sex workers are being coerced into doing sex work is simply false. On the other hand, if what people mean by saying that women aren’t choosing to be sex workers is, for instance, that women are being forced into sex work by poverty, then of course the reason why most people do most jobs is to avoid poverty.
Sex workers have the right to life, liberty and security of person, including in the determination of their sexuality.
Sex workers have the right to be free from arbitrary interference with their private and family life, home or correspondence and from attacks on their honour and reputation and in respect of this right.
The lack of acknowledgement of sex work as labour or a profession has
adverse consequences on the working conditions of sex workers and denies
them access to protection provided by national and European labour
legislation.
The lies against sex workers must not be tolerated in irish society, there has been much lies spread against them by people who do not respect them.
@ Aram seen your links, agree with you. Siddharth Kara is just great.
Have seen your links – grotesque that someone talking legalization. I have family in NSW Australia and I know what happens there. A lot of trafficking lots of organized crime and lots of violence and rape in illegal brothels, most of it are illegal.
“Sandra” or whatever youre called. Nobody wants to read your IUSW propaganda text.
Nobody in the sex industry is normal most of them suffer from ADHD and borderline and most of them has been abused in the childhood. Normal sexual behaviour, no I dont think so.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/380515.stm
“Its survey of 50 young adults who are or have been prostitutes found half had started at the age of 14. Two were only 11.
Fifty per cent said their first sexual experience was one of abuse and a quarter had been abused before they reached the age of 10. ”
Fifty per cent in prostitution has been abused nd you think it should be legal for any pimp (now as a legal businessman) to misuse these abused youngsters in their legal brothels.
http://www.wasvisual.com/Video_by_Mircea_D_Sigal_on_Adult_ADHD_And_Nonparaphilic_Compulsive_Sexual_Behavior.html
http://www.healthyplace.com/bipolar-disorder/children/impact-of-bipolar-disorder-on-girls/menu-id-67/page-2/
Louise your kind of discrimination and lies against sex workers is the very reason why they have to face stigma, danger and discrimination in society, from the likes of you spreading disinformation about their lives, with your ridicolous claims and your lousy anti-sex-work links.
You can not even bring yourself to call women involved in exchanging sexual servives for money a sex worker, instead you use derogatory name and call them a prostitute and then portray them with your “FALSE” crazy stereotyping and then trying to ridicule them and make them look stupid
Sex work is legal in some parts of australia there and the sex workers enjoy the safety such legality the government provides.
Your links are nonsense and not even worth looking at, and the nonsense you are saying about sex workers is so untrue.
It is an infantile view that all sex workers are poor helpless victims and were abused in the past.
Many sex workers are deliberately choosing to be sex workers cause the pay is so good, you’re just jealous louise cause a sex worker can make more than you.
You also fear their sexuality and try to squash it, cause it probably intimidates you.
It is not us who is putting the prostitutes in danger. Not I, not Aram, not Brigit, not society but the punters and the rest of the sexindustry. Dont blame society for the violence customers are responsible for.
“exchanging sexual servives for money” how nice! A man hires a body part or several parts and holes in the body for a period to ejaculate into these holes. Thats called prostitution.
One for my lousy anti-sex-work links was BBC, another was dr. Mircea Sigal, who has more than 20 years experience with mentally ill people. The last one Martha Hellander, J.D. is Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation Research Policy Director.
The same goes for Siddharth Kara. He is just a lousy amateur compared to mr Mai who jumps directly out of the study room into a hermetically closed world, and everybody are so nice to him and tell him their true and honest life story.
Fact sheets for sex workers in Queensland Fact sheet for sex workers – dealing with difficult clients.
http://www.respectqld.org.au/sqwisi/resources/Dealing%20with%20difficult%20clients.pdf
“”These can be done in an erotic way so as not to make the client defensive. You can put in a bit of teasing or the impression of personal satisfaction (we know this can be difficult) when you are checking the condom is still there and in one piece. When the booking is nearly finished, talk to him about how enjoyable it was even with the condom. This might make it a bit easier the next time you see him or for the next sex worker he sees.”
Defensive punter…. the impression of personal satisfaction (we know this can be difficult)……
“Sometimes, clients will try to ‘save’ the worker or they will try to have a personal relationship with them. They could do this by trying to contact the worker at home or continually asking them to go out with them or
asking for their personal information (real name, home phone number, where they live, etc.) even after the worker has made it clear that they do not want any of this attention.”
“or asking for their personal information (real name, home phone number, where they live, etc.) even after the worker has made it clear that they do not want any of this attention”
Here is your stigma. Who are the prostitutes hiding for? The punters! The sexual harassments and violent punters.
“If you feel your safety is in danger, do what you need to get out safely, regardless of any refund you may have to give. An assault leaving bruising can force you into having time off work in turn losing more money than one client’s booking fees.”
Oh yes – very bad for business! Losing more money! money! money!
“It is a good idea not to encourage clients to fall in love with you, especially clients with a disability as they tend to get very attached if they only see the same worker every time. If you are able to make a client understand that
this is not real love nor is the booking a part of a relationship, you can make your own mind up whether or not you will continue to see them.”
Oh No, that anyone really should feel any emotions associated with the sexual act. What a creep.
More Fact sheet for sex workers
Psysical wellbeing for sexworkers.
http://www.respectqld.org.au/sqwisi/resources/Physical%20wellbeing%20for%20sex%20workers.pdf
“Many sex workers have constant direct skin contact with their clientele. This can (and usually does) involve a lot of friction which can cause microscopic breaks in the skin’s outer layer. These skin breaks enable the possible transmission of various infections.
It is not uncommon for many sex workers to develop a hygiene obsession, involving
excessive rubbing and scrubbing with often harsh soaps. This can lead to many
unwanted, unfavourable skin conditions which make working difficult and unpleasant.”
“Many sex workers have constant direct skin contact with their clientele” Where is the condom?
“This can (and usually does) involve a lot of friction which can cause microscopic breaks in the skin’s outer layer.” This hurts a lot.
“It is not uncommon for many sex workers to develop a hygiene obsession, involving
excessive rubbing and scrubbing with often harsh soaps.”
Hygiene obsession?? Excessive rubbing and scrubbing with often harsh soaps????
“You also fear their sexuality and try to squash it, cause it probably intimidates you.”
No way Mr. Sandra. No Way. I prefer to be a normal healthy woman with a normal and healthy sexuality and mind.
@Louise fully and truly agree.
Thanks for sharing the guidelines with us. This is so disturbing reading but it shows quite clear how grotesque the prostitution world is. There are no human beings in it, only sex and money. No feelings and no human touch.
““It is a good idea not to encourage clients to fall in love with you, especially clients with a disability as they tend to get very attached if they only see the same worker every time. If you are able to make a client understand that
this is not real love nor is the booking a part of a relationship, you can make your own mind up whether or not you will continue to see them.”
“An assault leaving bruising can force you into having time off work in turn losing more money than one client’s booking fees.”
What about the psychological damage after an attack? It may be so normal to be attacked by the customers that you do not talk about the psychological damage. Perhaps it is because you then have to admit that there still are people in prostitution who get PTSD.
Hygiene obsession: “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder that affects about 1-2% of the population. People with OCD experience both obsessions and compulsions.
•Obsessions are unwanted and disturbing thoughts, images, or impulses that suddenly pop into the mind and cause a great deal of anxiety or distress.
•Compulsions are deliberate behaviours (e.g. washing, checking, ordering) or mental acts (e.g. praying, counting, repeating phrases) that are carried out to reduce the anxiety caused by the obsessions. ”
PTSD, ADHD, Borderline, OCD, abused in childhood. This is really a “healthy” business. No normal thinking and feeling human being can honestly support so sick an environment. An environment that attracts people who have already been injured in mind and become even more damaged by being in and being abused by a group of men who only think of to cover their needs.
Such shocking discrimination and lies against sex workers shown by ignorant people here, sex workers are human beings and they deserve rights.
I don’t think that you get it. The quotes I brought in the last post and Louise brought and wrote about (some of it) are from ‘Fact sheet for sex workers’ in Australia.
http://www.respectqld.org.au/sqwisi/resources/Physical%20wellbeing%20for%20sex%20workers.pdf
Quoted directly from their page:
“Physical wellbeing for sex workers
Look after your skin
Many sex workers have constant direct skin
contact with their clientele. This can (and
usually does) involve a lot of friction which
can cause microscopic breaks in the skin’s
outer layer. These skin breaks enable the
possible transmission of various infections.
It is not uncommon for many sex workers to
develop a hygiene obsession, involving
excessive rubbing and scrubbing with often
harsh soaps. This can lead to many
unwanted, unfavourable skin conditions
which make working difficult and unpleasant.”
http://www.respectqld.org.au/sqwisi/resources/Checking%20a%20client.pdf
This is also called OCD and it is not normal behaviour, whatever you say or think.
ADHD and borderline are documented among prostitutes and it’s a fact that main part of the prostitutes has been abused in childhood.
Thats a load of nonsense, and Dr Nick Mai’s government-funded report has proven you wrong, yourself and louise are just haters of sex workers, so you try to smear their lifestyle cause you don’t agree with them having a livelihood from selling sexual services, you lot are a joke, just like the radical feminists and the disinformation and misinformation they put out to the public that ruhama spreads aswell due to their leaders having anti-sex views and being celibate nuns.
Two of the catholic congregations which ran Magdalene laundries in the State set up and continue to run the Dublin-based Ruhama agency,
The Ruhama Agency Founders & Trustees
• The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity
• Good Shepherd Sisters
The Ruhama Agency Board Of Directors
• Sr. Sheila Murphy of The Sisters Of Our Lady Of Charity
• Sr Frances Robinson of The Sisters Of Our Lady Of Charity
• Sr Bernadette Mc Nally of the Good Shepherd Sisters
• Geraldine Rowley of the Good Shepherd Sisters
Both those organisations the Good Shepherd Sisters and The Sisters Of Our Lady Of Charity have a history of abusing women and children that passed through their magdalene laundries.
In a letter to Justice for Magdalenes spokesman Prof James Smith on June 23rd last year, Sr Sheila Murphy of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity said she did “not wish to have, nor do I see any purpose in having, a meeting with you at this time”.
In an e-mail of June 17th last year, Sr Bernie McNally of the Good Shepherd Sisters told Prof Smith she would not be able to engage in a meeting with him and “will not be able to respond further”.
Land surrounding a former mass grave at the largest Magdalene Laundry was quietly sold by the order of nuns who ran it for €61.8 million during the boom.
The revelation emerged as representatives of the women imprisoned in the laundries met with Justice Minister Alan Shatter.
They discussed the new inquiry and their case for an apology, compensation and a pension for the women involved.
The Justice For Magdalenes group (JFM) said the €296m made in property deals during the boom by the four orders who ran the laundries must form part of the conversation on redress.
The laundries were run by the Sisters of Mercy, the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and the Sisters of Charity.
Ruhama and their trustees are the biggest hypocrites ever!
They talk about slavery and abuse, when in fact their own trustees operated the very abusive magdalene laundries, a place wheres the women and children trapped there are seen as abuse victims by the government, and those victims were never compensated, yet ruhamas trustees spends their money preaching against consenting adult sex workers.
Ruhama just don’t like promiscous women, especially female sex workers, and they are not really best suited to be talking about sex given their founding history and current members which are mostly nuns from the congregational orders that abused irish children and women in the past.
Sex workers rights organisations are best suited to be talking about sex work.