EVENT: Safety First Coalition - Public Meeting

Sweden has not made it safer for women

In response to Women’s Minister, Harriet Harman’s proposal for legislation to criminalise men who buy sex, along the lines of that introduced in Sweden , Niki Adams, from the English Collective of Prostitutes commented:

“The 1999 law introduced in Sweden which criminalised men who buy sex, who on conviction face six months in jail, has forced prostitution further underground, made women more vulnerable to violence, driven women into the hands of pimps and made it harder for the police to prosecute violent men and traffickers. Ministers are visiting Sweden and Amsterdam but New Zealand ’s experience of decriminalising
prostitution where women are now more able to come forward and report violence, is being ignored.”

PUBLIC MEETING:

Before a decision is made on these issues, politicians, the media and the public must hear first hand about:
New Zealand’s decriminalisation of prostitution,
Sweden’s criminalisation of clients,
and their effects on women’s health and safety.

Keynote speakers:

Catherine Healy
Key to New Zealand’s successful decriminalisation of prostitution in 2003, Ms Healy was appointed by the Minister of Justice to the New Zealand Prostitution Law Review Committee. She is a founding member and the national co-ordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective. She is frequently sought by national and international organisations for advice on issues affecting sex workers. She was widely consulted for the publication of A Guide to Occupational Health and Safety in the New Zealand Sex Industry recommended by the Justice and Electoral Select Committee. She collaborated with researchers from Otago University , Christchurch , on major research into the effects of decriminalisation soon to be published. In1993 Ms Healy was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal for her services to women.

Pye Jakobssen
Organising for sex workers’ rights since 1994, Ms Jacobsen is a founding member of Sex Workers and Allies in Sweden (SANS) which organises against the criminalisation of sex workers resulting from the criminalisation of clients.

Wednesday 16 January 2008 4-6pm
House of Commons, Committee Room 10
Westminster, London SW1 All welcome
Hosted by Baroness Vivien Stern and John McDonnell MP

ORGANISED BY: The Safety First Coalition, made up of members of the church, nurses, doctors, probation officers, drug reformers, anti-rape organisations, residents from red light areas, sex workers, sex work projects and others who came together in the aftermath of the tragic murders of five young women in Ipswich, to press for women’s safety to be prioritised and for an end to the criminalisation which makes sex workers vulnerable to attack. It opposes Clause 72 which increases criminalisation. It is co-ordinated by the English Collective of Prostitutes.

CLAUSE 72 (NOW 150) is being promoted as an alternative to a fine but it is an additional power. It requires anyone arrested for loitering or soliciting to attend a series of three meetings with a supervisor approved by the court “to promote rehabilitation, by assisting the offender to address the causes of their involvement in prostitution and to find ways of ending that involvement . ” Women will be humiliated by being asked to reveal intimate circumstances while no resources are being made available to “address the causes”. Failure to attend will result in a summons back to court and a possible 72-hours imprisonment. Women may end up on a treadmill of broken supervision meetings, court orders and imprisonment, on top of fines and prison sentences for non-payment of fines. Even the Magistrates Association has expressed concern.

English Collective of Prostitutes or Safety First Coalition
Tel: 020 7482 2496, 07811 964 171 ecp@allwomencount.net www.prostitutescollective.net

EVIDENCE ON THE IMPACT ON SEX WORKERS SAFETY OF SWEDISH LEGISLATION

Excerpts from “Purchasing Sexual Services in Sweden and The Netherlands:
Legal Regulation and Experiences”, Working Group on the Legal Regulation of the Purchase of Sexual Services, Ministry of Justice and Police Affairs, 2004, Norway .

“Street work has gone up in Malmo [town on the border with Denmark] and down in Gothenburg and Stockholm .

“It has not been possible for the working group to find an answer to the question as to what happened to the women who disappeared from the street. …”

“Our informants have given us a general impression of an increased fear of attack. … For the street prostitutes prices have fallen and fear has increased. …The women’s experience is that they feel that the criminalisation process has affected them negatively… It has become more difficult to carry out ‘quality assurance’ on those clients.”

“It has been claimed that prostitutes’ dependence on pimps has increased because street prostitutes cannot work as openly. The police informed us that it is more difficult to investigate cases of pimping and trafficking in human beings because prostitution does not take place so openly on the streets anymore. … Women are less visible … they are more difficult to reach by the support system.”

“Prostitutes’ dependence on pimps has probably increased. Someone is needed in the background to arrange transport and new flats so that the women’s activity is more difficult to discover and so that it will attract the attention of the police.”

Isabella Lund, SANS – Sexworkers and Allies Network in Sweden , 6 June 2007

“The law has increased the risks and violence against sexworkers …”

“Those who are worst afflicted are unfortunately the most vulnerable sexworkers, the street prostitutes, addicts and sexworkers from other countries. On the streets the negotiations must happen a lot faster than before since the police can be around the corner. … it is therefore hard to do a correct risk assessment.”

“The risk of infection has gone up because if a sexseller gets infected with a sexually transmitted disease, and the authorities advise her customers to contact them, many men are afraid to do so.”

“… if a customer meets a sexworker that he/she suspects is the victim of sexual trafficking, that person is today scared of going to the police. Before you could obtain evidence against traffickers and pimps based on customer’s testimony.”

“A lot of sexsellers on the street report being robbed and feel it's harder for them to contact clients outdoors. They therefore have to rely on other channels … and the likelihood of ending up in the hands of profiteers and pimps for those who need help increases.”

“Sexworkers feel more pressure from the police. … Police have also sometimes been reported to become heavy handed or brutal.”

“Sexworkers also report that the networks between sexworkers that existed before on certain known streets for prostitution have disappeared or weakened as a result of the sex-purchase law. Earlier you could warn each other for dangerous customers, fake cars, etc. … The "normal" clients have almost disappeared from the streets. Those who remain are the ones with a twisted mindset and street prostitutes today are more exposed to robbery, assault and rape than before.”

“When the prostitution market disappears underground it is harder for the authorities to intercept the persons that really need help. In Gothenburg many young women seek help to detoxify because of their addiction to heroin and almost all of them have sold sexual services. But the city’s prostitution group (social workers) seldom comes in contact with these women because they don't show up on the streets today. The same goes for the young drug addicts in Malmo .”
Recent correspondence from Ms Lund: “The police got an extra 7 million SKR to implement the law but there are no extra recourses to help sexworkers leave prostitution.”

Other sources:

“Sex in the New Europe: the criminalisation of clients and Swedish fear of penetration” Don Kulick, Professor of Anthropology at New York University and Stockholm , 2004. In addition to many of the above, Prof. Kulick found that evidence such as possession of condoms by women was used to convict men and that foreign sex workers were immediately deported and therefore would not report violence.

“Sex workers critique of Swedish Prostitution Policy”, Petra Ostergren, 6 Feb 2004. www.petraostergren.com

Sweden Radio report: “Swedish police report that prostitution on the streets is on the increase … and has returned to earlier levels – despite law banning sales of sexual services …” , Dec 2006.

Issued by Safety First Coalition
We are available to discuss any of the above.
Email: Tel: Web: www.prostitutescollective.net