AMNESTY







What you need to know aboutAmnesty International’s policy on ‘sex work’
"“In sheer numbers, it is the poor brown women of the world who pay with bruises, humiliation and deaths for this ignorant and hideous decision that has brought Amnesty International so low"








Entkriminalisierung von Prostitution: Resolution von Amnesty International löst nicht die wirklichen Probleme

""Die Freigabe des gesamten Prostitutionsgewerbes ohne jede staatliche Regulierung ist höchst fahrlässig und im Ergebnis nicht wirklich zielführend. Der Rotlichtbereich ist wegen seiner leicht zu erzielenden Gewinne ständiger Anziehungspunkt für die Organisierte Kriminalität und Spielwiese von Schwerkriminellen. Jetzt die Zuhälterei legalisieren zu wollen, ist schon hanebüchen", so der Bundesvorsitzende des Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter (BDK), André Schulz, heute in Berlin."





"A few weeks later one of the women who was giving out Nordic Model
 Now! flyers received an email from Kerry Moscogiuri, director of supporter campaigning and communications, saying that she had received a formal complaint “relating to the handing out of leaflets at the event and to the nature of the link contained in the leaflet.”She went on to explain that she had concluded that there were grounds to initiate an investigation under the activist code of conduct to establish whether “there are reasonable grounds for believing that a breach of the code of conduct has occurred.”
Three days later, she emailed again with a copy of the formal complaint and photos of the leaflets in question.
They were, of course, the beautiful Nordic Model Now! leaflet, which says such controversial things as: “Women and girls are not commodities for others to get rich on,” “Gender equality is not possible while men can buy women and girls” and “Prostitution is not the answer to women’s poverty."





"In 2016, Marcia Lieberman, a local group coordinator for Amnesty International, USA, was expelled by the board of directors for speaking out publicly against the new Policy on the Decriminalization of Sex Work. Amnesty used a little-known rule that prohibits a member from publicly opposing a position that Amnesty has taken. Lieberman writes about her experience and her view that Amnesty violated its fundamental principle of protecting free speech to silence her dissent"






"Through a close examination of Amnesty International’s (Amnesty) own arguments and sources, this paper demonstrates that Amnesty’s proposal to decriminalize prostitution or “sex work” will harm those it claims to help. It concludes that the best available evidence indicates that decriminalization of prostitution would: increase sex trafficking, leave prostituted women or “sex workers” more vulnerable to violence, and reduce access to healthcare, protection, and services"
http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=dignity






"However, NAPTIP's Acting Director General, Abdulrazak Zangiri, said at the International Conference on Human Trafficking Within and From Africa in Abuja yesterday, that this approach to prostitution is not only irresponsible but also rubbishes the huge investment that the EU has expended in combating sex trafficking."

http://allafrica.com/stories/201609060903.html








Calls for 'full decriminalization' of prostitution  "“The 1989 the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was the first formal foray into legalizing prostitution of children dressed up as child welfare and sexual rights,” Reisman said.  That view was picked up by the Kinsey Institute in 2014 in its status as a special consultant on sexual issues for the U.N.  “In this role, the Kinsey Institute has assigned itself the right to instruct the global population in normalizing every form of sexual activity,” Reisman said. “Big Pharma is a direct beneficiary of Kinsey’s promotion of sexual promiscuity by providing vaccines, chemical abortions, to name a few.”   
http://www.wnd.com/2016/06/amnesty-international-defends-pimps-and-traffickers/






""Begrebet dækker over alle parter i prostitution: ruffere, bagmænd og -kvinder, vagter m.m. – ofte med et halehæng af sexkøbere, der »viser sexarbejderne sympati«. Næsten ingen prostituerede anvender sig da heller af begrebet. De hverken føler sig eller kalder sig sexarbejdere og vil ikke identificeres med sexarbejderorganisationerne. Begrebet er forbeholdt sexarbejderlobbyister, der kræver, at rufferi afkriminaliseres, så rufferen kan kalde sig direktør, og et stort nej til at forbyde sexkøb, fordi det gør kundekredsen og pengene mindre."
http://politiken.dk/debat/ECE2824682/sexindustriens-lobbyister-fik-hvad-de-kom-efter/





 Conflicts of interest  As mentioned earlier, there is evidence that pimps and others who profit from the sex trade have joined Amnesty in order to influence its policy on prostitution. But there are other powerful vested interests at play. Amnesty receives significant funding from George Soros and the Open Society Foundation, both of whom lobby for the decriminalisation of the sex industry. For more about this powerful financial conflict of interest, see NGOs: the best PR and Spin Doctors that (sex-industry) money can buy."
https://thefeministahood.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/what-amnesty-did-wrong/






 "Politiet mener Amnesty har begått faktafeil. Advokat Silje Stenvaag mener Amnesty kan ha fattet en konklusjon før de undersøkte forholdene i Norge. Mildrid Mikkelsen i Rosa-prosjektet mener Amnesty bare har valgt ut stemmer som passer til deres budskap. Jan Austad i Justis- og beredskapsdepartementet mener rapporten bare underbygger Amnestys nylig vedtatte globale politikk på feltet."
http://www.dagbladet.no/a/60250924






"Agnete Strøm fra Kvinnefronten tok opp Amnesty Norges uholdbare rapport, og situasjonen i Norge. Les hennes innlegg her;


Comments on the Amnesty International’s report on Norway

Let us go back to Dublin last year, 11th August 2015; this is the day when Amnesty International adopted its Policy on Prostitution.

As a reaction to this new policy the Women’s Branch Amnesty Norway declared the same day in a press release that all the members of the Women’s Branch Norway were now leaving Amnesty, because:
“this policy and this recommendation go against the present law in Norway and might change Amnesty Norway into a lobby organisation for decriminalisation of sex byers and pimps and facilitate commercial sex”.
In Dublin last year Amnesty said their new policy on prostitution was based on four country reports, one of them was on Norway. No one had access to the reports apart from Amnesty HQ. We had to wait 9 months until 26th May this year."






"Amnestys første utkast til en «Policy on Prostitution» ble lekket i 2014. Alle senere utkast har i likhet med den gitt en anbefaling om å avkriminalisere sexindustrien, og samtlige mangler kilder fra kvinnebevegelsen og organisasjoner grunnlagt av overlevende etter prostitusjon. For å gi kredibilitet til sine standpunkter har Amnesty benyttet seg av kilder som er velkjente fra pro-prostitusjonsmiljøet, også kalt pro-lobbyen.
Amnesty Internationals policy for prostitusjon ble vedtatt 11.august 2015. Det ble sagt at vedtaket baserte seg på rapporter fra fire forskjellige land med ulike prostitusjonslovgivninger. Men disse rapportene ble ikke ferdigstilt før 26. mai 2016, hele ni måneder etter at vedtaket ble fattet. I forkant av avstemningen over vedtaket var det ikke mulig for Kvinnefronten å få noe svar fra Egenæs og Amnesty Norge om deres standpunkt i saken.

http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/uredelig-retorikk-og-bruk-av-fakta/60229619






 "NSWP is no fringe group. In 2009 it was appointed Co-Chair of the UNAIDS ‘Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work’. UNAIDS is the international body responsible for leading global efforts to reverse the spread of HIV, and the advisory group was established to “review and participate in the development of UNAIDS policy, programme or advocacy documents, or statements.” Alejandra Gil is also personally acknowledged in a 2012 World Health Organisation (WHO) report about the sex trade as one of the “experts” who dedicated her “time and expertise” to developing its recommendations. NSWP’s logo is on the front cover, alongside the logos of WHO, UNAIDS and the United Nations Population Fund."
http://www.faber.co.uk/blog/a-human-rights-scandal-by-kat-banyard/






"Amnesty’s draft policy cites support from “human rights organisations” for the call to decriminalise brothels. “Most significantly,” it states, “a large number of sex worker organisations and networks, including the Global Network of Sex Work Projects [NSWP], support the decriminalisation of sex work.” Yet in March this year Alejandra Gil, the NSWP’s former vice-president, was jailed for 15 years for sex trafficking."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/22/pimp-amnesty-prostitution-policy-sex-trade-decriminalise-brothel-keepers
"– Exempelvis fick Amnesty International 500.000 dollar från sexindustrin år 2013 för att fortsätta lobba för att avkriminalisera alla varianter av ”sexarbete” inklusive koppleri. Human Rights Watch fick 100 miljoner dollar 2010 från sexindustrin och började genast kritisera sexköpslagens implementering i Kanada. UNAIDS, som också fick finansiering från sexindustrin på över 3 miljoner dollar, har använt sig av aids-epidemin för att argumentera för en legalisering av prostitution."
http://www.proletaren.se/jamstalldhet-eu/eu-projekt-i-sexindustrins-tjanst






"OSF is a major donor of Amnesty (page 10 of their statuses) and is referred to several times in their prostitution-legalization policy paper.  As per their Assembly and Directors Forum 2014 – Sex work policy discussion, the organization will keep pushing for the right of men to buy sex, and pimp women. "

https://thinkoutsidetheboxer.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/ngos-the-best-pr-and-spin-doctors-that-sex-industry-money-can-buy/






 "Bazelon’s claim that she’d known nothing of this topic or debate prior to beginning work on this piece seems even stranger as I discovered her connections to George Soros, a billionaire whose Open Society Foundations (OSF) not only is a major donor to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HWR), and UNAIDS, but a number of sex work lobby groups across the world. Soros and OSF funded the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), which was revealed to be a front for a pimping operation last year, as their vice president, Gil Alejandra, who served as co-chair of the UNAIDS Advisory Group on HIV and Sex Work & Global Working Group on HIV and Sex Work Policy, was arrested for sex trafficking. "

http://www.feministcurrent.com/2016/05/12/unethical-practices-produce-new-york-times-sex-work-story/






 ""According to documents leaked in 2013, and prior to any consultation process, the Amnesty International Secretariat had already decided to push through with a full decriminalisation position. But who, other than 80 people claiming to be sex workers, did Amnesty consult with? Certainly not survivors of prostitution – not one was consulted."
https://sim345.wordpress.com/2015/12/04/retired-activist-puts-case-against-amnesty-international-to-wilpf-for-human-rights-week/







 "After spending last weekend in LA for the Western Regional Conference, it has been made clear to me that you have little interest in listening to survivors of prostitution regarding your policy recommending the decriminalization of prostitution. Likely, I think this is due to the fact that you are being misled by a very one-sided argument in which the “sex workers” have persuaded you that prostitution and trafficking are not intrinsically linked. I will tell you right now, they ARE linked. The logic is quite simple and I’m sure you will follow it: demand for commercial sex leads to prostituted individuals; there are not enough individuals who actually want to be prostituted (approximately 2-12% of all prostituted individuals would stay in it if other options were open to them, which is obviously the minority); and because of this, sex trafficking increases to feed the demand from the normalization of sex buying. Yes… it is that simple."

http://www.cancerincytes.org/#!v4-iss2moore/cun6




 Amnesty Internationals ståndpunkt att ställa sig bakom en legalisering av prostitution är överraskande och beklaglig. Mot bakgrund av forskningen kring sexhandeln bidrar ett sådant beslut till att sprida myter om sexhandeln, skriver de båda forskarna Michael Karlsson och Nujin Tasci.
http://www.svd.se/amnesty-sprider-myter-om-sexhandeln












We are a group of Sex-Trade Survivors from the US, UK, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Ireland and France, and this letter directly addresses you, Amnesty International, regarding your proposed policy of endorsing the worldwide decriminalisation of pimps and johns responsible for human rights abuses in the global Sex-Trade.
We know, through the experiences of our own lives, that the Sex-Trade is a damaging, dehumanising and demeaning system of exploitation which should *never* be decriminalised. We support and endorse the Swedish Model, which decriminalises only the exploited person in a prostitution exchange. This is very different in approach to the model currently being floated by Amnesty International, which is the complete and total decriminalisation of all parties in the sex trade, including those who exploit for sexual gain (punters/johns) and those who exploit for financial gain (pimps/traffickers.)


http://spaceinternational.ie/public-statements/


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