Preadings Navi Pillay, Ayanda and Mickey

in prostitution - those who are exploited by its very existence. This is what continues to exist in South Africa, and which we can all hopefully agree has not worked. The other option was legalisation or decriminalisation, which in practice are two sides of the same coin.

Germany and the Netherlands both legalised prostitution in the early 2000s. I am sure that the intentions for this were good but both countries are now starting to backtrack. They are in effect “failed experiments” and women have been harmed. In Germany we have seen only 44 out of over 400,000 people in prostitution actually register for welfare benefits. The German sex trade has been called a ‘giant teutonic brothel’ by The Economist, which “services” over 1 million men each day.

In a similar vein the Netherlands is now backtracking from its 2000 law, which sees entire streets of Amsterdam’s Red Light district filled with poverty-stricken women from Eastern European countries. They often do not speak Dutch or English. It is common knowledge that in the Netherlands and elsewhere, as standards of living and opportunities for women have risen, the number of national women in prostitution has fallen, leading to the “import” of women from other less developed parts of the world to satisfy the demand for legalised prostitution.

Prostitution and sex trafficking are directly linked. While not all women in prostitution are sex trafficking victims, all sex trafficking victims are sold into prostitution. Amsterdam is also a hub of international sex trafficking, while countries like Sweden where it is illegal to buy sex are seen by traffickers as less attractive destinations, for obvious reasons. If you can’t legally sell women for prostitution in a country, you would be less likely to traffic them there for sale when you can traffic them to countries where selling women in prostitution is legal.

New Zealand then tried to decriminalise the sex trade in 2003, which meant at the time that no laws would specifically exist to regulate the sex trade. However, some laws do exist, so in effect that country has become more of a ‘legalised’ model too. Even its ex Prime Minister John Key has said in 2012 that the approach was a failure and did nothing to stem the exploitation of minors in prostitution. Of course this approach also means that since prostitution is supposedly a job like any other it is not possible to help women exit - nor is it possible for them to be given specific assistance for the violence which is inherent in the sex trade. This approach conceals the violence and abuse experienced by people in prostitution, but it also benefits pimps, brothel owners and buyers - the exploitative elements of the sex trade.

Another key issue I would like to respond to is the assertion that prostitution should be called "sex work". This is absolutely erroneous. “Sex work” as a term does not exist in international law or in our official language in South Africa. It is not used anywhere in international law. Nor does it exist for people in prostitution. It is a term which is only used by people with vested interests in perpetuating the sex trade - or by those who inaccurately call for the system of prostitution to be fully decriminalised.

Prostitution is not work, it is abuse. It is often suggested that people in prostitution are akin to “miners or foreign domestic workers.” Prostitution is radically different from mining and