Our Swedish member The National Federation of Immigrant Women Associations was one of the organizers of seminar on prostitution during #CSW61 in New York. Seminar took place on March 15th in Church of Sweden.
Panelists:
- Julie Bindel, writer, feminist, and co-founder of the law-reform group Justice for Women
- Gail Dines, Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts
- Cherie Jimenez, Space International
- Per-Anders Sunesson, Ambassador at Large for Combating Trafficking in Persons, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden
- Moderator: Clara Berglund, Secretary General of the Swedish Women’s Lobby
Prostitution is not work. It is not sex and it is definitely not “sex work”.
It is violence against women, an obstacle to gender equality and a crime against women’s human rights.
Wrongly turning sexual slavery into “sex work” goes against empowering women and girls. Any system that is built upon the notion that men have the right to buy women and girls only empowers men.
Eliminating the prostitution and pornography industry is necessary in order to achieve gender equality. The women and girls in the prostitution and porn industry have the right to live free from violence.
The NGO CSW has denied several organizations to host seminars on prostitution and pornography.
This is why the Swedish CSW-network have united to host the event Prostitution –not a choice not a job.
The meeting was organized by Swedish CSW network: Unizon, Swedish Women’s lobby, Roks, the National Organisation for Women’s Shelters and Young Women’s Shelters in Sweden, Neither Whore Nor Subdued , Women Organisation of Sweden, the Girl Child Platform, Swedish Women of the Left.