PES Manifesto

Is prostitution a socialist issue?

Published Monday, December 15, 2008 at 01:45
by rikkeindenmark (2252 views and 0 comments)

I was very excited to experience the launch of the brand new PES manifesto at the Council in Madrid earlier this month. A truly exciting event and, also, an interesting manifesto with a lot of progressive proposals for a better Europe.

With respect to the PES manifesto I am particularly glad to see that one of the six points of the agenda is 'Championing Gender Equality in Europe'. My full support for the proposals made in this section of the manifesto: A European Women's Rights Charter, a Commissioner for Gender Equality, improving parental leave rights, eradicating trafficking of women and children etc. etc. Very well done!

However, I still feel something is missing on women's rights... Are Europe's socialists and social democrats still not able to agree on a decent proposal regarding prostitution? Women's rights organizations - national as well as international - have been saying for decades that prostitution is a serious danger to women's physical and mental health. It seems socialists cannot agree on criminalizing the buyer (the Swedish model), but maybe we could agree on being against the legalization of prostitution (as we see it, for example, in the Netherlands and Germany)? I know the debate on prostitution is a controversial one, also in socialist fora, but maybe it is time to bring up the issue? I, for one, would certainly like to see some more visionary and brave ideas coming from Europe's socialist and social democratic parties with respect to this particular women's rights problem.

If you are unfamiliar with the debate on legalization of prostitution I recommend having a look at these 10 Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution from the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. The list is definetely food for thought.

Let the debate begin!

Tags: campaign, human rights, manifesto, women