{"id":1235,"date":"2014-02-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scarletalliance.org.au\/2014\/02\/25\/news_item-2014-02-26-0622\/"},"modified":"2024-02-06T12:03:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T01:03:25","slug":"news_item-2014-02-26-0622","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scarletalliance.org.au\/news_item-2014-02-26-0622\/","title":{"rendered":"“Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers, Denounce European Union Vote” 27 Feb 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"
On the 26th February 2014, European Parliament voted 343 in favour, 139 against and 105 abstentions on a report which urges criminalising clients of sex workers in Europe. The report claims that such laws are beneficial to sex workers. <\/span> <\/p>\n “To say that this report decriminalises sex work is untrue. In any case, the impact of criminalising one of the two parties involved is that police detection and surveillance is on both the client and the sex worker. When police are the regulators of the sex industry it is sex workers that experience the brunt of corruption,” Janelle Fawkes, CEO of Scarlet Alliance clarified today. “Sex Workers in Europe fear that this report will result in member states legislating to criminalise sex work and stigmatise sex workers as ‘victims’ – a step in the opposite direction from recognising sex work as work.” <\/p>\n In her address to the European Parliament, Labor MP and report sponsor Mary Honeyball states that she met not one sex worker who was there of their own free choice. “Clearly Mary Honeyball has not consulted with sex workers – as our sex worker colleagues throughout Europe have been vocal in stating their opposition to this report,” Janelle Fawkes shot back.<\/p>\n "The Swedish laws criminalising clients has proven to be a decade-long failure," Janelle Fawkes explains. "In Sweden, it is illegal to rent a room to a sex worker, meaning that sex workers’ autonomy is impacted and legal rights are reduced for fear of detection. Adult children living at home from their parents’ earnings have been charged with “pimping” and sex workers cannot work together, advertise or hire security. Police stake out sex workers’ workplaces and, as a result, clients will only meet in public locations to avoid detection. In Sweden, laws criminalising clients are actively and maliciously used against sex workers."<\/p>\n