Strasbourg, 19/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the report by the Belgian Green, Patsy Sorensen on the Commission's Communication "For further actions in the fight against trafficking in women", Parliament made a series of recommendations to the Commission, Council and Member States, as well as to Interpol and the media, to help eradicate this phenomenon.
The European Parliament: - calls for a legal basis void of ambiguity to be inserted in the Treaty allowing the EU to combat all forms of violence against women; - recommends a common EU policy based on the drawing up of a legal framework, implementation of a law and prevention measures, and aimed at prosecuting and punishing the guilty parties and protecting and helping the victims; - considers that a clear and harmonised definition of the notion of trafficking is a precondition to an effective campaign and that the definition should cover all practices approximating to slavery, other than forced prostitution and sexual exploitation, like, for example, forced work and forced marriages; - stresses that those people subjected to sexual exploitation must be considered victims; - urges the Commission to extend its proposals to the trafficking in human beings in general (so as to include the trafficking in men and children), including those originating in EU Member States.
Parliament followed the Dutch MEP, Lousewies van der Laan (ELDR Group), by adopting two amendments concerning: a) urging UN Member States that have not yet done so to ratify the convention on the eradication of all forms of discrimination against women; b) the request for actions to be taken in view of preventing the increase in the number of pregnancies among young girls by more widely distributing contraceptives among the young, making use of information campaigns and improving the quality of sex education, as well as access to it.
Parliament, moreover, emphasises that prostitution does not stem from a choice of lifestyle but is rather a phenomenon closely linked to a given social reality, the economic, social, political and cultural realities of women. The regime of direct and indirect prohibition of prostitution in force in most Member States creates a black market monopolised by criminal organisations. Basing itself on different indicators, it recalls that 4 million people are victims of trafficking in the world and that 500,000 victims of trafficking enter Western Europe each year, and that the number of victims is growing and inflows from Central and Eastern Europe have dramatically increased, adding to already existing inflows from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.