Legislative and Policy Options in the Irish Context

1. Sex Trafficking and Prostitution: The Dilemma of DemandImplications of Article 6 of the Council of Europe Convention on Actionagainst 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.”

5. 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”.

6. 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”.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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”.

11. 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”.

12. 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)

13. 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

14. 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 Women’s Studies University of Rhode Island, USA, 2004

15. THANK YOU contact details: Immigrant Council of Ireland 2 St Andrew Street, Dublin 2 hilkka@immigrantcouncil.ie