Sex Trafficking and Prostitution: The Dilemma of Demand Implications of Article 6 of the Council of

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Sex Trafficking and Prostitution The Dilemma of
DemandImplications of Article 6 of the Council
of Europe Convention on Action against
Trafficking in Human Beings for National Law and
Policy

• Legislative and Policy Options
• in the Irish Context
• Presentation by Hilkka Becker, Senior Solicitor,
  Immigrant Council of Ireland
• Centre for Post-Conflict Justice, Trinity College
  Dublin, 23rd June 2009

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• Overview
• Demand as one of the root causes of trafficking
  in human beings
• State approaches to prostitution and sex
  trafficking
• Review of existing measures to address demand in
  Ireland
• Review of existing proposals to address demand in
  Ireland

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• Article 6, Council of Europe Convention on Action
• against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005)
• () each Party shall adopt or strengthen
  legislative, administrative, educational, social,
  cultural or other measures including
• research on best practices, methods and
  strategies
• raising awareness of the responsibility and
  important role of the media and civil society in
  identifying the demand as one of the root causes
  of trafficking in human beings
• target information campaigns involving, as
  appropriate, inter alia, public authorities and
  policy makers
• preventive measures, including educational
  programmes for boys and girls during their
  schooling which stress the unacceptable nature of
  discrimination based on sex, and its disastrous
  consequences, the importance of gender equality
  and the dignity and integrity of every human
  being

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• Article 9(5), UN Trafficking Protocol (2000)
  State Parties shall
• adopt or strengthen legislative or other
  measures, such as educational,
• social or cultural measures, including through
  bilateral and multilateral
• cooperation, to discourage the demand that
  fosters all forms of
• exploitation of persons, especially women and
  children, that leads to
• trafficking.
• Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human
  Rights and
• Human Trafficking, by the UNHCHR Strategies
  aimed at preventing
• trafficking should take into account the demand
  as a root cause. States
• should consider () analysing the factors that
  generate demand for
• exploitative commercial sexual services and
  exploitative labour and
• taking strong legislative, policy and other
  measures to address these
• issues.

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• Brussels Declaration on Preventing and Combating
  Trafficking in
• Human Beings (2002)
• It should be an essential and common goal for
  the fight against
• trafficking to address the reduction of the
  demand for sexual
• services and cheap labour. This includes
  education on equal and
• respectful relationships between sexes, and
  awareness campaigns
• especially targeting clients (). A crucial
  component in the
• comprehensive counter-trafficking response will
  be further research
• and analysis of the demand side of the
  trafficking process and
• an examination of methods by which the demand of
  clients can be
• effectively reduced (). Awareness raising
  campaigns aiming at
• the demand side of the trafficking process
  should be developed as
• part of a comprehensive process of reducing
  trafficking effectively.

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• EU Plan on best practices, standards and
  procedures
• for combating and preventing trafficking in human
  
• beings (2005)
• All EU Member States should promote gender
  specific
• prevention strategies as a key element to combat
  trafficking
• in women and girls. This includes implementing
  gender
• equality principles and eliminating the demand
  for all
• forms of exploitation, including sexual
  exploitation and
• domestic labour exploitation.

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• Components of Demand
• the men who buy commercial sex acts
• the exploiters who make up the sex industry
• the states that are destination countries, and
• the culture that tolerates or promotes sexual
  exploitation

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• State approaches to prostitution and sex
  trafficking
• prohibition
• regulation
• abolition
• decriminalisation
• ? making the purchase of sex a criminal offence
  means defining the demand side of prostitution as
  the problem, rather than women who sell sex

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• Section 5, Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act
  2008
• it shall be a defence for the defendant to prove
  that he or
• she did not know and had no reasonable grounds
  for
• believing that the person in respect of whom the
  offence
• was committed was a trafficked person.
• ? emphasis should be put on the existence and
  knowledge on the part of the buyer of identifiers
  of human trafficking

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• Section 3, Child Trafficking and Pornography Act
  1998
• sexual exploitation means, in relation to a
  child
• inviting, inducing or coercing the child to
  engage in
• prostitution.

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• National Action Plan to Prevent and Combat
  Trafficking
• of Human Beings (2009-2012)
• one factor fuelling the human trafficking menace
  is the
• demand for the services of its victims
• the need to discourage this demand is thus a key
  priority
• in the fight against human trafficking
• targeting the clients of trafficking victims is
  one of the most
• effective means of accomplishing this goal.

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• Blue Blindfold Campaign ? indicators
• Working Group on Sexual Exploitation ?
  examination and making of recommendations in
  relation to legislative, administrative,
  educational, social, cultural and other measures
  which impact on and discourage demand for sexual
  services of victims of trafficking.
• Globalisation, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution
  The Experiences of Migrant Women in Ireland ?
  consideration of findings and recommendations by
  the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU)

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• Article 4 ECHR - Siliadin v. France (2005)
• "the increasingly high standard being required in
  the area
• of the protection of human rights and fundamental
  liberties
• correspondingly and inevitably required greater
  firmness in
• assessing breaches of the fundamental values of
• democratic societies.
• ? positive obligations on States to adopt and
  implement effective criminal-law provisions to
  protect victims

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• We could greatly reduce the number of victims, if
  the demand for
• them was penalised. If there were no men seeking
  to buy sex acts,
• no women and children would be bought and sold.
  If there were
• no brothels waiting for victims, no victims would
  be recruited. If
• there were no states that profited from the sex
  trade, there would
• be no regulations that facilitated the flow of
  women from poor
• towns to wealthier sex industry centres. If there
  were no false
• messages about prostitution, no women or girls
  would be
• deceived into thinking prostitution is a
  glamorous or legitimate
• job.
• Donna M. Hughes, Professor Carlson Endowed
  Chair in Womens Studies University of Rhode
  Island, USA, 2004

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• THANK YOU
• contact details
• Immigrant Council of Ireland
• 2 St Andrew Street, Dublin 2
• hilkka_at_immigrantcouncil.ie