Amnesty International says laws against buying sex breach men's human rights

[DonkeySkin]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2545003/Amnesty-calls-legal-prostitution-Charity-says-laws-ban-people-buying-selling-sex-breach-human-rights.html

The organisation is planning to adopt a position that calls for the full decriminalisation of the sex industry, including johns and pimps.

It is tabling a paper for its UK branch to vote on that says it is a human right for 'consenting adults' to purchase sexual consent from another person (regardless of the desperate circumstances that person may be in, presumably). The paper also devotes time to that latest favourite cover-all for sex-industry advocates, 'the rights of the disabled', as a reason to allow the continuing expansion of the global sex industry with no oversight or concern from governments.

Apparently the human rights of the (overwhelmingly) women and girls who are coerced, trafficked and enslaved inside the sex industry to satisfy the demand from men for paid sex are of no concern.

Oh, sorry - Amnesty does remember to devote a whole two words to this, conceding that prostitution takes place in an 'imperfect context'. That would presumably be the context of a worldwide patriarchy that devalues female human beings, denies them education, safety and fairly paid work, and tells men they have the right to use their bodies for sex regardless of their actual desires. Not to mention, systemic racism, colonialism and exploitative capitalism.

Good to know Amnesty is prepared to stand up for the most vulnerable people on earth - male sex buyers.

[Custardo]

amnesty do some amazing work, have you got a link to this on the amnesty website because I am not opening a daily mail link

I would rather read amnesty's perspective and make my decision than read some shit mate up by paper so right wing.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

At the moment it's a consultation paper so I do not t think it's on their site as a campaign.

Their stance seems to be partly that it might be a net positive to decriminalise buying and selling as women could work together in brothels etc. I disagree with the viewpoint but it's not unique.

[DonkeySkin]

Here is the leaked draft document:

www.scribd.com/doc/202126121/Amnesty-Prostitution-Policy-document

Note that in the first paragraph, the authors conflate prostituted people and johns, as if they were equal partners with the same power differential in a business transaction.

Doctrine, although it is a draft paper, supposedly up for consultation with Amnesty's UK membership, the organisation is pushing this line heavily, and plans to adopt this position internationally should the UK branch approve it.

The language throughout is completely gender-neutral, with no recognition that the majority of those purchased for sex are women and girls, and virtually all buyers are men.

And no acknowledgement of the evidence that legalisation increases human trafficking, as there are never enough women entering the sex industry voluntarily to cope with the demand from men as the market expands with legalisation.

www.lse.ac.uk/geographyAndEnvironment/whosWho/profiles/neumayer/pdf/Article-for-World-Development-prostitution-anonymous-REVISED.pdf

[RayPurchase]

Yuck :(

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

It's strange cos they have supported anti trafficking campaigns before!

[HotDAMNlifeisgood]

That's awful.

I second Buffy's suggestion.

[MooncupGoddess]

Ugh. I thought the experience of decriminalisation was that the sex trade significantly increased in the cities in question, drawing in trafficked/exploited women and sex tourists from all the surrounding countries. Great result all round, eh.

The idea that men have a human right to buy sex is simply bizarre.

[slug]

There's a twitter hashtag #QuestionsForAmnesty

[Lio]

Good idea, Buffy: I have been a supporter of Amnesty since school and want to know what's going on here.

[PleaseJustLeaveYourBrotherAlon]

So, does that count any kind of sex? All kinds of sex?

I'm trying to think of all the things I've heard read prostitutes say they have to do..and I'm trying to think why a man being able to piss on a woman for money should have to be legal. Disabled or not.

Why don't they start a campaign to enlighten people to disabilities to increase the chance of them meeting willing sex partners? Or helping them to meet other disabled people... How is sex a human right? Surely the right to not have sex is the only inalienable sex right there is?

And if it is a "human right" will they be trying to increase the number of men going in to prostitution for disabled women to "enjoy"?

[slug]

Is not one of Amnesty's slogans "Protect The human" It strikes me that women are excluded from the category 'human.'

[NeoFaust]

Maybe they're thinking of protecting women's right to sell? That could be the perspective they're coming from, rather than protecting mens rights to buy.

And of course, mens right to sell and women's right to buy.

[AnAdventureInCakeAndWine]

Do you have a non-Daily Mail source for "the organisation is pushing this line heavily"?

[Viviennemary]

I think people would need to know more about this from the Amnesty point of view. I have listened to arguments in favour of legalising prostitution but not sure where I stand on it.

[SuperLoudPoppingAction]

www.niassembly.gov.uk/Documents/Justice/human-trafficking-bill/written-submissions/Amnesty-International.pdf this shows they were pushing the same sex industry talking points to lobby against the Nordic model.

I think the Daily Mail's pretty dire, but Julie Bindel's a good journalist who has worked to research the reality for women within prostitution.
The document she cites is linked above.
Amnesty are saying it's just the beginning of a consultation but I don't buy that if they've already used the same talking points in their lobbying work.

I saw on twitter they'd asked the Scottish branches to remove their support for the 'ending demand' consultation but I don't know the source for that.

One of the women condemning this is Heather Harvey of Eaves who used to work for Amnesty. I'm assuming she would be able to verify the story before speaking out.

[AnAdventureInCakeAndWine]

Interesting have found (apparently legit) minutes of Amnesty UK's International Issue Sub-Committee (IISC) from November where they are discussing canvassing the opinion of Amnesty UK members they say specifically that IS (International Section, I think) is "strongly advocating" an Amnesty position supporting decriminalisation and the IISC is "broadly supportive".

www.amnesty.org.uk/webfm_send/228

So it does seem an accurate report for once.

[Mishmashfamily]

That's fucking terrible if true.

[VoldysGoneMouldy]

I was so hoping this would turn out to be daily fail bullshit, but it would appear otherwise.

Disgusting.

[PleaseJustLeaveYourBrotherAlon]

NO not organs.. I am sure. They can come from men.

Rent a wombs in 3rd world countries though....

[vaudevelle]

Having the opinion that people should be allowed to sell and pay for sex, and that businesses should grow around them, should not equate to being pro-human-trafficking.
It is disgusting that I can be put in prison for choosing to exchange my body for money. This is not a feminist issue, it is a libertarian issue.