IN an area where we have traditionally lagged behind, Ireland is on the cusp of what could be a highly progressive approach to human trafficking.
Officials from the Department of Justice took part in a visit to Sweden last September to assess the impact of the Swedish model of criminalising the user of prostitutes and decriminalising the prostitute herself or — to a much lesser extent — himself.
A report on the trip has been provided to Justice Minister Dermot Ahern but the wheels of progress are slow and there is no sign of that report being made public.
However, on a positive note, it would appear that the lessons of the Swedish model may have been learnt.
In a response to a Parliamentary Question in the Dáil, Mr Ahern confirmed while any proposal to amend the law to create an offence of purchasing sex would require careful consideration: "I have asked the Attorney General to examine the report and requested his views on the legal and constitutional implications of introducing such a ban here.
"I have no difficulty releasing the report as soon as the Attorney General has completed his examination of it," he added.
What anti-trafficking campaigners will be looking for here will be the full implementation of the Swedish model, ie the inclusion of the decriminalisation of the prostitute in the new approach.
The reality, though, is that any decision to press ahead with the criminalisation is meaningless without the freeing up sufficient resources to police the crime.
In spite of the stream of cars touring red light districts every night and stopping to pick up women, there is little evidence of the men being prosecuted.
According to the Central Statistics Office, there were 157 incidents of prostitution offences up to the end of the third quarter of 2010.
While no breakdown is provided, it is almost certain the majority of that figure is derived from the prosecution of women on the streets and in raids on brothels.
The decriminalisation of the prostitute would make it easier for the authorities here to detect and prosecute pimps and human traffickers because it would remove the women’s fear of detection by the police and create an impetus to report those who control them.
However, it would also make them more visible on the streets and without a distinct increase in the detection rate, it could serve to actually inflate the sex industry.
Nonetheless Ruhama, which works with prostitutes and trafficking victims, is a firm supporter of decriminalisation.
"Ruhama supports this model as it recognises prostitution as an aspect of male violence against women and children and recognises that women in prostitution are victims," it says.
Just three other countries have followed the Swedish example by criminalising the user. Norway and Iceland also decriminalised the prostitute.
In Britain the approach was different. Authorities there made it an offence to have sex with a woman trafficked or forced into prostitution and also introduced tougher laws aimed at penalising the punter.
The Metropolitan Police estimated that 70% of the 88,000 women involved in prostitution in England and Wales were under the control of traffickers and so in introducing the new legislation, the country’s then home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said the laws would leave men with no excuses if caught using women who were not having sex for money voluntarily.
Controversially, the new law left no room for men claiming they did not know the women were being exploited. Paying for sex with a woman "controlled for another’s gain" was made a "strict liability offence" meaning prosecutors would not have to prove that the man knew a prostitute was being exploited in order to charge him. Ignorance of the woman’s circumstances would not be a defence and those convicted would get a criminal record and a fine of up to £1,000.
After the murder of three prostitutes in Bradford last year, Prime Minister David Cameron said it was important "not to jump to conclusions" because decriminalisation would bring "all sorts of problems".
Nonetheless he said it was worth looking at the law again.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, January 05, 2011
