- Conference
- 2016 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 15 October 2015
- Decision
- Carried
Women’s Rights Are Human Rights
Conference, the recent decision by Amnesty International to work towards full decriminalisation of the sex trade has disappointed women’s groups across the world. As the world’s most prominent human rights organisation we would not expect Amnesty International to prioritise the rights of pimps and punters over the rights of women, girls and some men to be free from a life of selling sex.
UNISON has already set policy on prostitution at both National Women’s Conference and National Delegates Conference. We have taken the stance that prostitution is a form of violence against women and support the idea of tackling demand through adopting a Nordic style law that decriminalised the sale of sex and criminalises the buyers and pimps while funding exit strategies. In countries where this has been implemented, it has been proved to be successful in reducing the demand for prostitution and changing public attitudes towards the sex trade.
Contrary to this, Germany and New Zealand that have fully decriminalised or legalised prostitution activity and as such has seen an increase in trafficking, organised crime and inflation of both the legal and illegal trade, with no tangible evidence that women are safer.
The approach to consultation that Amnesty has taken on this proposal has been questionable. Not all members and branches were given a timely opportunity to respond. As an affiliated organisation, conference believes that UNISON should be given the opportunity to challenge the proposed policy and work with women’s rights organisations to stop the policy being adopted.
We are calling on the national women’s committee to;
1)Lobby Amnesty International and make clear our views that full decriminalisation of the sex industry and its profiteers is not in line with our policy of prostitution as it is an infringement on women’s rights .
2)Lobby Labour Link and MPs to revitalise the campaign for the Nordic Model
3)Work with the ‘End Demand’ campaign to implement a Sex Buyer law, and to raise awareness through regional and branch networks.
