FEMM chair: increasing speak out on prostitution needed
New Europe Online, 04 December 2012
By Stanislava Gaydazhieva
The chair of the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM), MEP Mikael Gustafsson, said during a conference on prostitution organised by the European Women’s Lobby that an increasing speak out on the issue of prostitution was needed.
Gustafsson added that this was necessary no matter how controversial this issue was and the resistance to deal with it. He also said that a step up in the voices and opinions on prostitution was necessary.
The Swedish MEP co-hosted the conference together with his colleague, the Bulgarian MEP Mariya Gabriel.
In the opinion of Gustafsson, a lot was being said about trafficking in general, but there was almost silence about the root causes of it. He emphasised a couple of them, including the sex industry, prostitution markets and the demand among men to buy sexual services.
The MEP pointed out that the issue of limiting, combatting and even abolishing prostitution was a gender equality issue and concluded by saying that there was a need for development of policies which did not normalise prostitution, but at the same time create a positive view sexuality in society.
In Gustafsson’s opinion, the European Union could not afford to have a society that does not value equally men and women’s bodies and integrity.
