Buying Sex is not a Sport -NWCI launch public awareness campaign

Published: Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The National Womens Council of Ireland (NWCI) are today (Thursday) set to launch a nationwide public awareness campaign to highlight the issue of trafficking in women for prostitution, for major international sporting events.

The campaign Buying Sex is not a Sport is being launched in light of the up-coming FIFA World Cup, where it is estimated that thousands of women and girls will be trafficked into Germany for the purposes of prostitution.

• The NWCI views prostitution as sexual exploitation, in which women legally or not are physically and psychologically harmed explained Joanna McMinn, Director of the NWCI.
• The public are understandably unaware of the reality of global trafficking and do not realise that women, some as young as 15 years, are actually sold into the global sex industry. The NWCI is launching this campaign to raise awareness of this issue and the violence and human rights abuses associated with this practice, in light of the up-coming FIFA World Cup she continued.

The NWCI will highlight the situation in Germany at present, where the owners of small and mega-brothels and sex industry infrastructures, including performance boxes, in the 12 German World Cup cities are ready to make a maximum of profit during the World Cup period with the massive influx of male supporters.
Performance boxes are wooden "sex huts" resembling toilets? explained Ms McMinn, that have been built in fenced-in areas the size of a football field, with condoms, showers and parking for the buyers and a special focus on protecting their anonymity.

For this, the private sex entrepreneurs have had to receive authorisations from the local governments in the 12 German cities.

The NWCI strongly opposes that womens bodies are treated as commodities that can be bought and sold.

As part of the Buying Sex is not a Sport campaign, the NWCI strongly asserts that:

• -Treating women's bodies as sexual commodities violates womens human rights and fundamental freedoms; an attack on the bodily and sexual integrity and dignity of all women.
• -Treating womens bodies as sexual commodities violates international standards of sport that promote equality, mutual respect and non-discrimination.

FIFA President, J.S Blatter acknowledges the prominent role of sport and especially football, as a vehicle for delivering clear and firm messages to eradicate the huge blights undermining society around the world?. The NWCI ask: How will the FIFA World Cup Games help eradicate the blight of trafficking and sexual exploitation

The major drive behind the campaign, will be the launch of an on-line petition calling on the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell TD and the Irish government to put the issue of trafficking in women for prostitution and the human rights abuses and violence associated with that, on the agenda of the next EU Council of Minister's (Justice & Home Affairs) meeting in Luxembourg on April 27th & 28th, 2006.

The petition also calls on all sporting bodies, including FIFA and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to publicly disassociate themselves from the sexual exploitation of women around sporting events and to affirm the dignity and human rights of all women.

If you find the trafficking in women for prostitution for major sporting events unacceptable, we appeal to you to join us in signing this statement in protest at the trafficking in women for the FIFA World Cup 2006. You can sign on-line at www.nwci.ie or call us on 01- 8787 248 and we will send you on the information that you require concluded Ms McMinn.