Abolish Prostitution Now! is a global campaign which aims to eliminate the harms of prostitution by eliminating the practice itself. We are a working group of women, including survivors of prostitution, who believe that prostitution is violence against women and the practice has no place in a world free from oppression and exploitation.
The campaign was initiated in response to two UN Aids reports, which advocate legalisation of prostitution. One major goal will be to lobby the United Nations to adopt the perspective that prostitution is violence against women and should not be legal. Instead, the UN should be supporting progressive approaches, such as the Swedish Model, which criminalises punters and decriminalises women in prostitution. This approach has proven to be successful in reducing trafficking and the size of the industry as a whole. Norway, Iceland, South Korea and France have also adopted this approach. In addition, the working group decided that we want a broader campaign, where we can build a movement by raising community consciousness (please see campaign aims and objectives below for more information).
Opponents of the abolitionist approach almost always argue the ‘choice’ card, i.e. that prostituted women are responsible for the sex industry and the harms within it, because we/they choose to be prostituted. Rather than arguing about whether women ‘make a choice’ or not, we believe that it is the destructive choices of punters that instead need to be held accountable, scrutinised, examined and questioned. In addition, women and girls who have survived prostitution experiences need to be able to speak about trauma without having to deal with constant examination about whether they chose to be prostituted.
Aims and Objectives of the Campaign:
* Lobby the UN to support an abolitionist approach and recognise prostitution as violence against women
* Support survivors activism and platform the voices of women speaking against the sex industry, without judgement or questioning whether they made a ‘choice’
* Focus on demand and hold punters accountable for their choices and actions
* Raise the Consciousness of the community through holding forums and events and stalls
* Support the current petitions to the UN against legalisation / decriminalisation
* Re-building a large and global women’s liberation movement through the campaign
* Take these strategies back to our countries and local areas to develop grass roots activism at a local level
* Get more countries involved in the campaign to support the global effort!
* If you wish to participate in discussion about this campaign, there is a forum open to all here.
* To join the movement, you can look at our “take action” page for more information about what you can do to contribute if you wish.
Abolish Prostitution Now! 