Amnesty International turns its back on prostitution survivors, sides with pimps

Amnesty International has long been known as a global movement working to defend and protect human rights, to speak against exploitation and abuse, and to stand up for some of the most vulnerable and oppressed people in the world.

This is why their prostitution policy to legalise pimping and purchasing women for commercial sexual exploitation has attracted an outcry from advocates, human rights organisations, activists and survivors of prostitution and trafficking throughout the world.

Rather than standing up for women exploited in the global sex trade, Amnesty is on the side of sex trade profiteers, voting to legalise pimping, brothel keeping and sex buying on the basis that it access to women's bodies for sex is a "universal right" that should be free from state interference. In short, men's "right" to buy and sell women is being prioritised above women's rights to live free from abuse, violence, exploitation and rape. What was Amnesty thinking?

UK pimp takes credit for Amnesty's prostitution policy after infiltrating the movement

Collective Shout has joined with over 400 advocates, human rights orgs and survivors of prostitution and trafficking, in an open letter calling for Amnesty to vote no on their plans to legalise pimping, brothel keeping and sex buying. Other notable signatories on the letter include Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Carey Mulligan, Emma Thompson, Emily Blunt, Angela Bassett, Kevin Kline, Lisa Kudrow and many more.

TAKE ACTION

You can add your name to the open letter. 

Email your local Amnesty branch, urging them to vote NO to decriminalising pimps and johns. (Find your branch here.)

Contact @Amnesty on Twitter using the hashtags #NoAmnesty4Pimps and #QuestionsForAmnesty. You can follow @NoAmnesty4Pimps here and retweet them too.

Like 'No Amnesty 4 Pimps' on Facebook for continued updates.

Survivors of prostitution and sex trafficking speak out against Amnesty's proposal to decriminalise pimping and purchasing women for sexual exploitation. 

This is a statement and response developed for the attention of Amnesty International leadership and grass roots membership by prostitution survivors and people who are or have been harmed in the sex trade. Although we have all experienced harm in the sex trade, we also have extensive knowledge from all perspectives, having researched thoroughly the impacts of different legal systems around the world from an objective point of view. Some of us are active Amnesty International members and are concerned about the organisations capacity to further inflict human rights violations and expand harm to women and girls - 90 percent of prostituted people are women/girls and over 99 percent of buyers are men, so this is a women’s rights issue (Sullivan 2007).

Statements from NORMAC and Abolish Prostitution Now following Amnesty state AGMs on weekend

NORDIC MODEL AUSTRALIA COALITION (NORMAC)

Media Release 10/05/2014

AMNESTY BRANCHES OPPOSE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S SEX INDUSTRY AGENDA.