An alliance of 68 organisations calling for the proscription of the sale of sex acts has pressed the Oireachtas to end the exploitation of women, men and children in the sex industry.
Meeting in Dublin yesterday to step up calls for legislation to make it illegal to purchase sex, the Turn off the Red Light campaign said such a measure would help end sexual exploitation of vulnerable people in Ireland.
The campaign, which involves unions and a range of bodies in the charity and voluntary sector, specifically wants the criminalisation of the purchase of sex acts, in addition to the legislation aimed at ending pimping, and the procuring and trafficking of persons for sexual exploitation.
They say also that the decriminalisation of persons who have been prostituted would aid those victims by recognising their vulnerability.
Last June, the Oireachtas justice committee recommended a law be enacted criminalising those who pay for sex, along the lines of the Swedish model. The report further called for legal reform including larger penalties for trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
“Today, it is seven months since the Oireachtas justice committee made its unanimous recommendations and we want the keep the pressure on Government to implement those recommendations,” said Jerry O’Connor of the Immigrant Council of Ireland.
Addressing the campaign meeting at the Dublin offices of the European Parliament, he added: “It’s also 12 months since senior gardaí told the Oireachtas committee that organised crime runs Irish prostitution. So, today, we are reminding politicians that 68 organisations haven’t gone away. This is still an issue.”
The event, chaired by Denise Charlton of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, heard Clare Treacy of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation criticise the view that providing sex was a form of work. Such a description was “an attempt to give it a veneer of respectability on what is a despicable industry”.
“Prostitution has a devastating impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of those prostituted,” she added. “Repeated violation of a person’s body for the profit of others is wrong and will always be wrong.”
Mortality rates among those prostituted were much higher than those who were not, she said. Quoting HSE statistics, she said: “The majority of women recorded symptoms related to sexually transmitted infections or other health problems related to prostitution.”
Turning to the campaign’s primary aim of having the law changed, she said: “We have to be careful not to fall into the trap of replaying the first half.”
While progress had been made, she added: “We must focus now on seeing it out to the end . . . and not allow the other side to reopen the debate.”
Margaret Browne, secretary of the Ictu women’s committee insisted: “This is not a 26-county issue or problem. It’s a 32- county problem and from that point of view I’m delighted that our colleagues in Northern Ireland are now in support of the proposed legislation.”
She praised the role played by the Northern Ireland committee of Ictu to support the campaign. “We were given a guarantee last June by the Minister for Justice that the legislation would be implemented in the autumn,” she said. “Now it’s the spring and we have no legislation. We are still waiting.”
More than 1,000 women and girls are for sale for sex in Ireland every day, the campaign states. About 80 per cent of women involved in prostitution have reported physical abuse.
The campaign, which is linked with similar bodies across Europe, says about 500,000 women are victims of trafficking in the EU and nearly 90 per cent of those caught up in prostitution want to stop.