News
Oct
2003
Rape
Crisis Scotland
and
the Women’s Support Project have launched the Scottish Coalition
Against Sexual Exploitation.
Below
is the launch statement and a membership form. (You can also click
here
to read an article from The Herald newspaper reporting on the
launch.)
The
Scottish Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation:
works
to raise awareness of the harm caused to women through prostitution
and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation, including
stripping, lap dancing, pornography, sex tourism, mail order
brides, and trafficking for the purposes of prostitution.
campaigns
for legislative change necessary to: reduce the harm caused
through prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation;
remove current gender inequality in the law; challenge the behaviour
of men who buy sexual services.
The
Coalition takes the view that prostitution and other forms of
sexual exploitation are part of a spectrum of men’s violence against
women and children, which includes incest, rape, sexual harassment
and domestic violence. There are clear links between issues such
as childhood experience of abuse and neglect, domestic violence,
poverty, homelessness, addiction, and women’s involvement in prostitution,
pornography and the sex industry as a whole.
We
oppose efforts to categorise prostitution as ‘sex work’. Legalising
or legitimising the activity will not remove the harm caused but
would simply legitimise that harm. We do not view prostitution
as a choice for women, irrespective of age, and believe that it
is contradictory to condemn child prostitution whilst condoning
or ignoring adult prostitution. Neither do we recognise the false
distinctions between forced and so-called ‘free’ prostitution.
All prostitution is exploitative of the person prostituted, regardless
of the context, or of whether that person is said to have consented
to the prostitution. Sexual exploitation eroticizes women's inequality
and is a vehicle for racism; Black women, minority ethnic women
and indigenous women suffer disproportionately.
Contact
the Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation
c/o
Women’s Support Project or
c/o
Rape Crisis Scotland
31
Stockwell Street
1st floor, Central Chambers
Glasgow
93
Hope Street
G1
4RZ
Glasgow
G2 6LD
jan@wsproject.demon.co.uk
info@rapecrisisscotland.org.uk
Scottish
Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation
Membership
(click
here
to open this form on a separate page for printing, completing
and returning - word document)
Membership
of the Coalition is open to individuals and organisations who
support the statement of principle above and who have an interest
in working against sexual exploitation.
If
you wish to apply for membership please complete and return this
form.
I
support the work of the Coalition, as outlined overleaf, and wish
to apply for:
individual
membership
group
/ organisational membership
SIGNATURE:...........................................................................
DATE:
...............................................................................................................................................
NAME:..............................................................................................................................................
ORGANISATION
(if appropriate) .........................................................................................
ADDRESS:.......................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................
PHONE:...............................................................FAX:.....................................................................
EMAIL:
............................................................................................................................................
PLEASE
RETURN THIS FORM TO:-
Coalition
Against Sexual Exploitation,
c/o
Women’s Support Project, 31
Stockwell Street ,
Glasgow
, Scotland
, G1
4RZ
OR
email to jan@wsproject.demon.co.uk
