[NextGenderation]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
You are invited to hear about the
New Zealand and Swedish experiences of prostitution
and to interview those who really know.
CATHERINE HEALY and PYE JAKOBSSON
Wednesday 16 January 2008 4-6pm
House of Commons, Committee Room 10
Westminster, London SW1 All welcome
Hosted by Baroness Vivien Stern and Jo hn McDonnell MP
Catherine Healy will also speak in a number of other
cities.
To set up an interview contact: Cari Mitchell 020 7482
2496 or 07811
964 171
As repressive legislation to "rehabilitate" prostitute
women and
criminalise clients is considered by Parliament,
experts from Sweden
and New Zealand speak on the daily implications of
these laws for
women's safety.
Are prostitute women ignorant victims? Immoral
criminals? Or are
they workers who deserve respect and support? What do
the women think
of the government proposals to "rehabilitate" them and
criminalise
clients? Would these proposals stop the trafficking
of women for
prostitution? How different is this trafficking from
trafficking for
agricultural, domestic or other service work? What do
other women
think of the feminist claim that all prostitutes are
victims who
cannot be left to decide about their own bodies and
about how to make
a living? Is prostitution uniquely degrading or is it
uniquely
degraded by criminalisation?
Before you decide, come to the meeting in the Commons
on 16 January.
The Safety First Coalition invites you to hear first
hand about
New Zealand's decriminalisation of prostitution,
Sweden's criminalisation of clients,
and the effects on women's health and safety.
Keynote speakers:
Catherine Healy
Key to New Zealand's successful decriminalisation of
prostitution in
2003, Ms Healy was appointed by the Minister of
Justice to the New
Zealand Prostitution Law Review Committee. She is a
founding member
and the national co-ordinator of the New Zealand
Prostitutes'
Collective. She is frequently sought by national and
international
organisations for advice on issues affecting sex
workers. She was
widely consulted for the publication of A Guide to
Occupational Health
and Safety in the New Zealand Sex Industry recommended
by the Justice
and Electoral Select Committee. She collaborated with
researchers
from Otago University , Christchurch , on major
research into the
effects of decriminalisation, soon to be published.
In1993 Ms Healy
was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal
for her services
to women.
Pye Jakobsson
Organising for sex workers' rights since 1994, Ms
Jacobsson is a
founding member of Sex Workers and Allies in Sweden
(SANS) which
organises against the criminalisation of sex workers
resulting from
the criminalisation of clients.
The Safety First Coalition is made up of members of
the church,
nurses, doctors, probation officers, drug reformers,
anti-rape and
anti-poverty campaigners, residents from red-light
areas, sex workers,
sex work projects and others, who came together in the
aftermath of
the tragic murders of five young women in Ipswich to
press for women's
safety to be prioritised and for an end to the
criminalisation which
makes sex workers vulnerable to attack. It opposes
Clause 105 of the
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill which increases
criminalisation.
It is co-ordinated by the English Collective of
Prostitutes.
Clause 105 was rushed through the Commons on 9 January
despite
widespread concern. It is being promoted as an
alternative to a fine
but it is an additional power. It requires anyone
arrested for
loitering or soliciting to attend a series of three
meetings with a
supervisor approved by the court "to promote
rehabilitation, by
assisting the offender to address the causes of their
involvement in
prostitution and to find ways of ending that
involvement." Women will
be humiliated by having to reveal intimate
circumstances, while no
resources are to be made available to "address the
causes". Failure
to attend will result in a summons back to court and
possible 72-hours
imprisonment. Women may end up on a treadmill of
broken supervision
meetings, court orders and imprisonment, on top of
fines and prison
sentences for non-payment. Even the Magistrates
Association has
expressed concern.
The government is considering criminalising clients
and ministers have
just visited Sweden where it is illegal for men to buy
sex.
For the briefing on aspects relating to prostitution
in the Criminal
Justice and Immigration Bill or any
other information contact the English Collective of
Prostitutes and
the Safety First Coalition
Tel: 020 7482 2496, 07811 964 171
ecp@???
www.prostitutescollective.net
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