Madam, – I refer to the report “Prominent Irishmen seek change to prostitution laws” (Home News, February 3rd). Apparently the idea is to criminalise male buyers of sex, but not female sellers thereof: a fairly blatant form of gender discrimination, it would seem.
Apart from the gender discrimination, it surely needs to be emphasised, once again, that it is not the legitimate function of the State to police the private behaviour of consenting adults. That lesson, comprehensively elaborated in John Stuart Mill’s classic text On Liberty, has already been learnt in regard to gay sexual relationships. It has yet to be learnt in regard to recreational drugs.
In both cases, much suffering has ensued from the extension of police powers beyond their appropriate bounds.
Should such legislation be instituted, there are possible ramifications of a bizarre nature. One could envisage, for example, someone being arrested on foot of an expensive gift to a prospective sexual partner. (Or perhaps a Garda inquiry might be held into the balance of romantic and economic motivations in any given relationship?). Combating trafficking is laudable, but not at the expense of a further erosion of civil liberties. – Yours, etc,
Madam – I wish to commend the groups involved in Ireland’s “Turn Off the Red Light” campaign for highlighting the pernicious and often invisible problem of sex trafficking. In Ireland, 1,000 prostituted woman are available for sexual exploitation each day, 97 per cent of which have been trafficked into Ireland.
Sex trafficking and prostitution are inextricably linked. Calls for the legalisation of prostitution do not consider the group of girls and women who then become legitimate targets for rape and sexual exploitation. Male abusers can act with impunity because they know that women in prostitution will not be believed or taken seriously by the criminal justice system.
The “Turn off the Red Light” campaign calls on the next Government to legislate along the Swedish model which criminalises the purchase of sex while protecting the prostituted woman. This recognises that without demand for the sale of women’s bodies, prostitution would not exist. Irish laws already criminalise solicitation, but these laws are not enforced.
The next government must urgently enact legislation that will deal effectively with what can only be described as the commodification of sexual abuse. – Yours, etc,