Isabella Lund

Sexarbetare i hela Europa har under många år sagt högt och tydligt “Nothing about us, without us”.

Nu gör vi det igen och riktar skarp kritik mot ett utkast till en rapport av FEMM om prostitution och dess hälso- konsekvenser på kvinnor i EU:s medlemsländer.

Rapportör är EU parlamentarikern Maria Carlshamre (Fi) och föga förvånande går rapporten naturligtvis emot de Europeiska sexarbetarnas manifest och gemensamma deklarationen samt Europarådets resolution “Prostitution wich stance to take“.

(Ni vet Europarådets resolutionen som svenska politiker inte ville rösta igenom. Resolutionen som Beatrice Ask tyckte var problematisk för att man ska visa respekt för sexarbetare och lyssna på oss. Kommer ni ihåg att vår protest mot Asks uttalandet bemöttes med ett sanslöst svar från justitiedepartementet?)

FEMM är EU:s kommitté för kvinnors rättigheter och jämställdhet, och jag har ingen förhoppning om att de svenska EU politikerna i FEMM, Maria Carlshamre (Fi) och Eva-Britt Svensson (v), kommer att lyssna på vår protest. De är välkända fanatiska prostitutionsmotståndare och har inte sexarbetares mänskliga rättigheter på sina agendor.

Här följer det gemensamma uttalande från Europas sexarbetare om Carlshamres rapport, uttalandet har skickats till samtliga medlemmar i FEMM.

Dear FEMM Committee members,

We applaud your work and commitment to improve the rights and health of women in Europe, including migrant women, as is evidenced by the proposed FEMM report /”On prostitution and its health consequences on women in Member States”./ However, we are compelled to raise our concerns when the potential ‘improvements’ being put forward by this report risk leading to repressive policies towards both prostitution and migration and which may deeply undermine prostitutes’ ability to implement strategies of self-protection and self-determination.

*ON LANGUAGE*
An important part of the more than 20 year history in Europe of sex workers self-determination is reflected in the words they use to describe their own realities.

We strongly object to the use of the phrase ‘prostituted women’ on the grounds that it denies women the agency promised to them by our feminist legacy; it erases the voices of those (migrant) sex workers who have made clear decisions about their own futures, it conflates the different experiences and needs of sex workers and trafficked persons, and it obliterates the
experiences and needs of transwomen
working in prostitution.

We ask that the members of the FEMM Committee remove the phrase ‘prostituted women’ from this report in respect of the voices of all women working in the sex industry, none of whom call themselves by this term. We ask that this phrase be replaced with sex worker, or trafficked person where appropriate.

*ON VIOLENCE*
The disproportionate levels of violence experienced by both indoor and outdoor based sex workers and the failure of the law to protect sex workers from violence has been identified across Europe as a major factor in increasing sex workers vulnerability, particularly those who have no legal status or are directly criminalised. Social vulnerabilities of sex workers is one of the structural determinants of the risks to health and well-being and in particular to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).The often unsafe and violent environment of the work place and the poor living conditions of sex workers increases their vulnerability.

We object to the FEMM Committee report which suggests that some forms of harm are essential to prostitution and to the language which reaffirms stereotypes about potential causal factors to entry into prostitution. The sex workers rights movement, advocacy workers and academics have vastly contributed to our knowledge about sex work, sex workers and their clients. It is unethical to deny the diverse realities lived by women and transwomen working in the sex industry by selecting research which favours a particular ideology.

We ask that the FEMM Committee members reconsider and remove all statements in the report which unilaterally apply causal factors and consequences to the diverse lives and experiences of all women working in prostitution.

*ON HEALTH*
The unspoken position of The FEMM Committee report seems to be that prostitution is a health threat to all women. This idea risks leading to instituting proscriptive policies that undermine the rights of all women to sexual self-determination under the guise of ‘protecting’ women from the harms of prostitution.

The right to life, safety, free speech, political action and access to information and to basic health and education services are important to all women including those women and transwomen working in sex work. No one should lose these human rights because of the work they do.

A human rights-based approach to health promotion and programme implementation for sex workers has been the core principle of UN agencies for many years. It is essential that the national and regional programming policies and interventions for sex workers should fall in line with the human rights framework if they are to be effective in reducing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and enhancing the health and well- being of SW.

We ask the FEMM Committee to weigh very carefully the balance between making a strong ideological statement and re-entrenching ideas about vulnerability and potential to victimisation for women thereby undermining every women’s right to self-determination and sexual autonomy and which may lead to repressive policies that increase vulnerability especially for those women and transwomen working in sex work.

*ON TRAFFICKING*
The presence of migrant sex workers in Europe and in other regions of the world requires a rethinking of the issue of women’s labour migration and complex system of factors that provoke different forms and levels of vulnerability.

Positioning migrant women working in the sex industry as mainly victims of trafficking results in the conflation of very different experiences, needs and possible remedies for migrant sex workers and trafficked persons; within this framework no woman benefits. Increasingly we are seeing legislation discussed or introduced by States that risk restricting the freedom of movement of all women. Such policies often enhance rather than halt trafficking mechanisms by making women more dependent on potentially exploitive third parties.

We ask that the FEMM Committee to re-examine those statements in the report which directly conflate prostitution and trafficking. We encourage FEMM committee members to support strong anti-trafficking policies which are based on the protection of women’s human rights. At the same time we stress the need to create a legal and a social framework for dealing with sex work based on the protection of sex workers’ human, labour and civil rights, including those of migrant sex workers.

In closing we would like to stress how important it is for women to work in solidarity together /with/ the women and transwomen working in sex work without denying our diversity of experience or vision for a just and equitable world.

We call on the members of the FEMM Committee to promote *holistic policy and strategy* underpinned by principles of respect and inclusion of (migrant) sex workers and to promote European policies that are based on the equality in access to civil and social rights including the right to health protection.

*”Nothing about us, without us”*

Signed:

Petra Timmermans
Coordinator - International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe ( ICRSE)

Licia Brussa
Director - TAMPEP Foundation International

Katrin Schiffer
Project Coordinator Correlation Network

Aliya Rakhmetova,
Project Coordinator SWAN network (CEE/CA)

If committee members are committed to listening to all women on the issue of rights, including the voices of sex workers (women, transwomen and men, and men) living and working in Europe, then we encourage you to take the time to read the /Declaration on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe/ and the /Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto/. Both are available via the www.sexworkeurope.org website.

Ps…
Förutom det här gemensamma uttalandet så har flera sexarbetarorganisationer i Europa skrivit direkt till Maria Carlshamre och de andra medlemmar i FEMM för att protestera. Du kan t.ex. läsa de danska sexarbetarna prostest här.

Till sist…
Oscar Swartz konstaterar att det är kristen sexualmoral som är ett av skälen till att vi alla skall avlyssnas och registreras och filtreras.

Anna Svensson har varit på Stigma-spaning och kommit på att hon och jag inte vill förknippas med varandra pga de fördomar som människor har om oss. (Det är inget personligt för vi gillar varandra annars.)

Blogge skriver om Kielos balja av avföring.

Och sen attackeras både jag och Greta Garbo av Sharazad på ett sätt som är så dåligt underbyggt så att det är skrattretande. Min blogg har t.ex. röststs fram som Årets politiska blogg av torskar enligt denna kvinna!

Skrattretande är också attacken mot mig av en socialdemokratisk politisk sekretare i Eskilstuna.
Emeli Lanninge skrev den 15 maj… “Har ni tänkt på att “Isabella” kanske inte är den hon utger sig för att vara och lika gärna kan arbeta som alibi för torsklobbyn.”

Ja jag vet att det är sent men ni har väl inte missat Charlottes debattartikel på fjärde sidan i Expressen “Hellre socialpolitik än sexköpslag” från den 10 maj?

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Andra bloggar om: prostitution, feminism, politik, horstigma, EU, FEMM,
Maria Carlshamre, Eva-Britt Svensson, sexarbete, sexarbetare
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written by Isabella