Brussels, 07/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - Following the adoption by the European Parliament of the Patsy Sorensen report (Green/EFA) on the fight against the trafficking in women, the European Women's Lobby (EWL) has launched an appeal for the seven countries of the EU - Austria, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom - that have not yet ratified the Convention on the Trafficking in Human Beings.
The EWL welcomes the adoption of the Sorensen report, calling on the "IGC to insert in the Treaty a clear legal basis for fighting all forms of violence against women, including trafficking in women". However, it regrets that the report refers to "force prostitution", as if it were making a distinction between it in relation to voluntary prostitution. "This position is dangerous", says Colette De Troy, coordinator of the Policy Action Centre on Violence Against Women, "as the phenomenon of sexual exploitation is not a choice of a personal lifestyle", and because the lobbying of the sex industry is very powerful. It defends "chosen prostitution" and wants to amend the 1949 international convention along these lines". For EWF President Denise Fuchs, this backsliding would be a dangerous precedent.