Most Australians wouldn’t consider the links between sexism, objectification of women and sex trafficking in sport, or even think about it at all.

Click here to read the submission 

Click here to read the submission

“Their passports are taken. They are told they are here to undertake sexual services and they will not be paid."

As published at Melinda Tankard Reist

AFP reveals sex trafficking based in Sydney brothels

How can the sex industry continue to deny the reality of trafficking in this country? Of course it is in their interests to play it down, given their brothels are hungry for as many women as possible to meet demand. The AFP has provided evidence of trafficking in NSW brothels to a parliamentary inquiry. 

Click here to read submission (PDF)

AUSTRALIAN MEN TAKE THE PLEDGE AGAINST SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

 - PROSTITUTION - I DON'T BUY IT - 

Join men from across Australia who are coming together to take a stand against sex trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of women and children worldwide.  

Stand for the promotion of human dignity and the prevention of the commodification of women and children through prostitution. 

Sign the Nordic Model Australia Coalition (NorMAC) pledge - Prostitution - I Don't Buy It. 

In Ireland earlier this year, Tom Meagher, husband to murdered journalist Jill  Meagher who was murdered in Melbourne in 2012, spoke at a similar Irish campaign launch. 

Jill Meagher’s killer, Adrian Bayley, had a long history of raping and abusing prostitutes. 

Adrian Bayley is on public record as stating that he had a ‘right’ to rape prostitutes, because he ‘paid for it’.

At Ireland’s campaign launch Tom Meagher spoke about men's role in prostitution –

‘This dehumanisation [of women] comes from knowing that what they are doing is not right.  If you pay for sex, the money is not buying consent, it is paying for the temporary suspension of the woman’s right not to consent’.

Mr Meagher spoke of the lies of ‘consensual transactions’ and the ‘pernicious lie of the male libido being beyond the control of the man who owns that libido. That feeds into a lie that we can’t help ourselves’.

He said there was a ‘need to end the lie that this is about sexual liberation. It isn’t, it is about sexual exploitation. The circumstances are usually coercive, but even if they are not, the buyer has no way of knowing.

Ultimately, the only person making the choice is the buyer and the choices we make absolutely matter’.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/new-campaign-urges-irish-men-to-take-stand-against-sex-trafficking-1.2185276

In signing the NorMAC pledge - Prostitution - I Don't Buy It - men commit to:

Understanding that the commodification of women's bodies for sexual purposes is harmful and undermines women's human rights, dignity and gender equality.

Actively raising public awareness with other men the myths surrounding prostitution and sexual exploitation and trafficking, especially in Australia.

Assisting the curb for the demand for sexual services by supporting the introduction in Australia of Nordic model laws on prostitution, in recognition of the urgent need to provide peace and security for all women.

I agree to make the above pledge for the Prostitution - I Don't Buy It campaign

I agree to have my name listed on the pledge webpage at normac.org.au

Name                            Email                                                            

Signature

Please forward your signature and contact details to [email protected]. 

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).