Prostitution is a Major Concern Ahead of the Winter Olympics

by shelagh | May 27, 2009 at 03:07 am
350 views | 20 Recommendations | 1 comment

As Vancouver gets ready to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, human rights advocates are concerned that prostitution may flourish in the area.

“Any time that you have men who are travelling, so they’re away from their social networks and they enjoy a degree of anonymity, they’re more likely to purchase sex,” said Michelle Miller, the leader of REED. Ms Miller proposes that Canada should follow Sweden in criminalizing buying of sex and showing human concern towards the victims.

According to a group called Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity (REED), prostitution was in huge demand.at the football world cup (2006) tournament in Germany, which attracted a record number of human traffickers.

Anti-trafficking groups are launching a campaign to draw attention to what is predicted to be a huge demand for paid sex for thousands of men attending the 2010 Olympics. The "Buying Sex is Not a Sport" campaign will include ex-prostitutes who say Canada's laws should target the buying of sex as violence against women.

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Jarrett Martineau

Let's hope Canada is able to achieve similar success by implementing Sweden's model of imposing laws on prostitution that decriminalize the seller, while targeting the buyer.

In Sweden, there was "a reported 80-per-cent decrease in street prostitution" within two years.

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Jarrett Martineau
First Flagged at 9:09 AM, May 27, 2009 by Jarrett Martineau

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