(Newswire.net — August 25, 2015) Hampton, Victoria — Amnesty International, an organization focused on protecting human rights, has just voted in support to decriminalize the sex trade. The measure was passed at the organization’s International Council Meeting in Dublin, Ireland and included delegates from around the world. Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s secretary general, argues that sex workers are the most marginalized groups in the world who are in constant risk of discrimination, violence, and abuse. The measure will help protect them from this. Groups such as the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Equality Now, Oscar-winning actresses Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Emma Thompson, as well other activists and sex trade survivors have all come out against the controversial move.
According to CNN, Amnesty International aims to decriminalize the laws used against adult consensual sex work, or selling of sex among consensual adults. According to Catherine Murphy, a policy advisor at Amnesty, this does not mean the removal of all laws that deal with exploitation, abuse, trafficking, involvement of children. Laws are absolutely needed and are still absolutely relevant within a decriminalized system. Amnesty hopes to relieve the antagonistic relationship that often occurs between sex workers and police if countries choose to follow its proposal.
“I was travelling through Jakarta when a group of middle-aged women approached me and asked if I was interested in ‘sexual services’ from underage kids,” says Glen Hulley, the public face for Project Karma, a group dedicated to stopping child sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. “I’ve seen a lot of things in my life but from what I witnessed after that trip, it has changed my whole perception and I started questioning my values and what would make me happy and fulfilled.”
“Over there the nature of the countries and level of corruption and police resources are just woeful. There is little or no child protection and offenders can often bribe their way out of the investigation before it reaches court,” Hulley explains.
It is clear the laws restricting the nonconsensual and child sex trade must be put to an end. All offenders must be punished for their crimes, and all victims must be brought home safely and get the help they need.
Finding an end to the sex trade seems like a never ending process. Finding someone willing to get their hands dirty and seek out every single sex trade ring seems like a hard thing to do, but that’s exactly what Hulley and his team do at http://www.projectkarma.org.au/. “We know how to catch the travelling pedophiles, we know how to disrupt the criminal syndicates facilitating this market, we know how to save these children and give them a chance at life and we have the endorsement to work with and train local and national law enforcement agencies to serious affect this trade,” says Hulley.
As the need to end sex trafficking continues, every day more and more children are saved. “We are really lucky here and we do take things for granted, which is why I think these people need help” says Hulley.
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About Project Karma
Project Karma focusses on creating, training and mentoring local investigation teams to investigate reports of transnational and local child sex exploitation offences in areas of SE Asia and then works with local police to bring offenders before the respective judicial systems under our Sentinel Project.