A spokeswoman for one of the NGOs promoting a new campaign lobbying
for the introduction of legislation to end prostitution, sex-trafficking
and the exploitation of those trapped in the sex industry, has said
Ireland’s religious have a role to play in awareness-raising.
Gerardine Rowley told ciNews that religious, and
specifically, returned missionaries, have a role to play in the
provision of education and skills to help provide women trapped in
prostitution with an exit strategy.
Turn Off The Red Light is an initiative of a number of civil
society organisations as well as NGOs including Ruhama, which was
founded in 1989 by the Good Shepherd Sisters and Our Lady of Charity
Sisters.
Ruhama CEO, Gerardine Rowley told ciNews that one of the
central aims of the new campaign is to combat sex trafficking and
prostitution through the criminalisation of the purchase of sex,
modelled on legislation introduced in recent years in Sweden.
She said
the campaign is also calling for the criminalising of pimping, procuring
and trafficking of people for sexual exploitation.
“Most of the women are involved in off-street prostitution and the
majority are being controlled by a third party. It is a very lucrative,
sophisticated, highly organised business.
The majority of the sex
trade is being run by organised criminal gangs,” she explained.
She said Ruhama and other organisations involved in the Turn Off The Red Light alliance
are seeking the legislation because “over the last decade we have seen
an increasing normalisation of the sex trade here and there is peer
pressure on young men to use brothels for stag parties and other
entertainment.”
She cautioned, “The reality is that most women involved in
prostitution would not be there today if they had other alternatives or
choices.”
The Ruhama spokeswoman explained, “We know from our experience of
working with women in prostitution that there is no point in
criminalising those who are selling because most women in prostitution
are already quite stigmatised and marginalised and it only further
stigmatises them.”
She added that what Sweden did, and what they are seeking for
Ireland, is an investment of resources in services that help those who
want to exit the sex industry and find an alternatives.
“When Sweden introduced the law they did a lot of awareness-raising
around the issue. The law isn’t just used to prosecute and criminalise
people; it is also used to educate people. Now 70 per cent of the
population in Sweden back the legislation. It changed people’s
perceptions and beliefs and instead of seeing it as an entertainment or a
social outlet for men, they see it as a violence to another person and
harmful to treat another person as a commodity,” Gerardine Rowley said.