Goðsagnir um vændi númer 17 og 1824. febrúar 2014

Áfram höldum við goðsagnirnar um vændi… í þetta sinn á ensku

Myth 17: “Abolitionists want to prohibit prostitution.”
There is a great difference between the prohibitionist approach, which criminalises all actors in the system of prostitution, including prostituted persons, and the abolitionist approach that targets only the buyers, pimps and traffickers, in other words those who hold the power of choice. Simply penalising everybody does not address the root causes and gendered nature of prostitution. Abolition is about qualifying the structural, economic, psychological and physical violence inherent to prostitution, and therefore protecting the persons affected, and criminalising the perpetrators, i.e. the sex buyers. Abolition is about proposing concrete alternatives to persons in prostitution and changing mentalities.

Myth 18: “The abolition of prostitution is utopia.”
Abolishing prostitution does not equal eradicating it. Rapes, murders or paedophilia are prohibited, but still exist. What is important is the social norm conveyed by legislation: it anchors amongst human rights the principle that the human body and sexuality are not for sale. It creates the conditions for a genuine equal society to be realised.