On International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women yesterday, domestic and foreign women’s groups protested the government’s plan to legalize the sex industry.
“Studies show that more than 50 percent of sex workers in the Netherlands — the country considered to have the most open sex industry — are often threatened, beaten or even raped by pimps and clients,” Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), executive director of the Garden of Hope Foundation and member of the Alliance against Sexual Exploitation, told a news conference yesterday.
“The Rotterdam City Government has already decided to scrap the city’s special sex industry district, while the Amsterdam City Government has said its red light district has become a hotbed for human trafficking, sexual exploitation and money laundering,” she said.
The Amsterdam City Council has announced that a 10-year urban renovation project will be launched in 2012, with a 50 percent reduction of sex shop windows as part of the project, Chi said.
Several women’s groups from abroad also voiced their support for their Taiwanese counterparts via recorded videos shown at the press conference.
“The sex industry is closely associated with human trafficking and women’s organizations around the world are working together to stop sexual exploitation of women and girls,” said Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now, an international organization for rights of women. “I hope the government of Taiwan would seek to understand more about how other countries — such as Sweden, Norway, Iceland, the Philippines and Nepal — are working to protect women and children in the sex trade and punish the exploiters.”
Victor Malarek, a Canadian journalist and author of several books on the sex industry, said that abolishing the sex industry was the only way to end violence against women.
“Some people believe that legalizing the sex industry could give women a safer environment, but that’s not true — it only reduces the damage,” Malarek said.
“For example, you may have eight or nine cases of sexual assault per month now, and you may reduce the number to two or three [after legalizing the industry],” he said.
A representative from the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Ottawa said that legalizing the sex industry would only make gender equality harder to achieve, because the policy could encourage people to think that “the female body is merchandise available anywhere” and “block the realization of gender equality.”
Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation executive director Kang Shu-hua (康淑華) urged the government “to realize global trends in handling the sex industry,” adding that reducing the size of the sex industry “is the only way to end exploitation of women and better protect their rights.”
The alliance said it would visit candidates in the local government chief elections to seek their support against legalizing the sex industry.
Also See: Legalizing sex trade not the answer
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