Written by: Errol Naidoo
Article Source: Family Policy Institute
On 9 August South Africa observed “Women’s Day.” A day (and month) set aside to acknowledge and recognise the vital and indispensable role women fulfill in society. Tragically, despite government promises, sexual exploitation and abuse of women persists.
Alarmingly, however, the global sexual rights movements coordinated efforts appear to be focused on steering the valid and necessary debate on the rights and dignity of women towards its foreign-funded agenda to decriminalise the entire sex-industry in South Africa.
Global sexual rights radicals embedded in UN agencies like UNESCO, UNFPA and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are aggressively advancing its “sexual rights” agenda in South Africa by redefining marriage, dismantling the family, undermining parental authority, sexualizing children in education, destigmatizing pedophilia and legalizing prostitution.
Interestingly, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls told the Human Rights Council in Geneva “prostitution must be urgently recognised” as a system of violence, exploitation and abuse against vulnerable women and girls.”
The mainstream media is the PR agency for this harmful anti-family agenda. Articles parroting “sexual rights” talking points are regularly published in liberal media platforms during “women’s month” to link women’s equality and dignity with a legalized sex-trade.
Significantly, however, the SA Law Reform Commission (SALRC) conducted a comprehensive 9-year investigation into Prostitution Law Reform. Its Final Report refuted “sexual-rights” arguments. The SALRC advised against decriminalised prostitution.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) (that commissioned the investigation) bluntly ignored the SALRC findings and recommendations and pushed ahead with decriminalising the entire sex-industry in SA – by attempting to repeal the laws that criminalise prostitution.
But the DoJ’s reprehensible efforts stalled in Parliament. So the foreign-funded “Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce” (SWEAT) is attempting to circumvent the democratic legislative process to decriminalise the entire sex-industry via the back door.
Utilising the law courts to override the will of the people is a tactic often employed by leftist groups. And that’s why it must be stopped. I will be discussing strategy with the Advocate and attorneys opposing SWEAT’s High Court application in an online meeting on 14 Aug.
Researcher, Julie Bindel writes, “groups claiming to represent “sex workers” are just as likely to be a voice for pimps and brothel owners as they are representing prostitutes.”
Bindel further argues, the abolitionists position favored by survivors is, “prostitution is inherently abusive, and a cause and a consequence of women’s inequality. There is no way to make it safe, and it should be possible to eradicate it. Abolitionists reject the sanitizing description of “sex worker” and regard prostitution as a form of violence in a neoliberal world in which human flesh is come to be viewed as a commodity, like a burger.”
The standard arguments for decriminalizing all aspects of prostitution including pimping, brothel owning and sex-buying is that it will make life safer for the women and also make it easier to root out abuse like assaults, rape, and unfair discrimination by police officers.
However, in the Netherlands, where prostitution was legalised in 2000, the former Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen said legalisation had failed to remove organised crime from the sex trade, and that he hoped to “partially reverse” the legislation. And tragically, legalised prostitution only served to transform Germany into the the brothel of Europe.
Janice G Raymond’s excellent and succinct, “10 Reasons for Not Legalising Prostitution” highlights the most harmful aspects of legalised prostitution. Chief among them is the fact that legalised prostitution is in reality a gift to pimps, brothel owners and traffickers.
Raymond’s research proves that legalised prostitution does not control the sex-industry, it expands it. It also promotes sex-trafficking. This will be disastrous for SA – a nation where two-thirds of murders and sex crimes are not prosecuted because of failed policing.
The South African government and civil-society organisations have a lot of work to do to make society a safer place for women (and children). Widespread poverty and unemployment is a primary reason women are forced into prostitution in the first place.
A government that fails to lift women out of poverty and joblessness has no right legitimising an industry notorious for appalling exploitation and abuse of women. Legalised prostitution also undermines marriage, the family and the stability of general society.
Opposing legalised prostitution is not the task of a few. It is our collective responsibility as citizens because of the negative social influences that harm men, women and children.
Standing
Errol Naidoo
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Date published: 13/08/2024
Feature image: Image for illustrative purposes only. Artwork from www.freepik.com
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