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International Group Urges Canada to Raise Age of Consent, Urges Against Legalizing Prostitution

BELFAST, March 14, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition (IATC) warned Monday that legalizing prostitution in Canada would make the country a “magnet for human trafficking.”

“The 21st century slave trade, euphemistically called trafficking in persons, accounts for the transport, sale and exploitation of some 800,000 men, women and children every year,” according to the U.S. Department of State official whose office is charged with monitoring worldwide human trafficking patterns, as described by Gregory Carlin, IATC Director.

“Because of the leadership of President Bush and Congress, there is now an effective methodology for assessing global progress via the annual TIP Report, improved inter-agency coordination and NGOs working worldwide – together we are beginning to abolish contemporary slavery,” Carlin said in a release.

“The Canadian Parliament must enact legislative measures to deter sex buyers who create the demand for the sexual exploitation of women and children,” Carlin explained. “The govt. must also conduct research on the relationship between the trafficking of women and the existing legislation governing the Canadian strip club and prostitution sectors.”

Carlin pointed to a U.S. Department of State fact sheet in sex trafficking, which said, “Trafficking in human beings – often called modern day slavery – involves forced labor, most often of men, women and children in the commercial sex industry as prostitutes, but it can also involve forced labor in factories, fields, restaurants and homes. Traffickers prey on the ignorance or aspirations of people living in war-torn areas or in despair or poverty, often promising them a legitimate job opportunity. Once under the trafficker's control, the victim is then coerced or misled into work beyond legal protection.”

“Prostitution and related activities fuel the growth of trafficking by providing a façade behind which criminals can exploit the vulnerable,” the US fact sheet explained. “It is a vicious myth that women and children who work as prostitutes have voluntarily chosen such a life for themselves. A 2003 study first published in the scientific Journal of Trauma Practice found that 89 percent of women in prostitution want to escape. And children are also trapped in prostitution - despite the fact that international covenants and protocols impose upon state parties an obligation to criminalize the commercial sexual exploitation of children. For more information on the link between prostitution and sex trafficking, see http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/38790.htm”

In addition, Carlin emphasized that “Canada is one of those countries with legalized child sex tourism and remains a popular ‘holiday’ destination for sex predators from the US,” despite the potential for 30 years imprisonment for US citizens guilty of soliciting sex from minors while abroad.

“Child-protection groups have been lobbying the Canadian government to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 to bring Canada into line with international standards,” Carlin explained. “Instead of introducing a law that would definitively protect children, the Liberals are advocating NAMBLA friendly legislation that will do nothing to stamp out child exploitation and everything to help their exploiters.”

To help enforce diplomatic measures to deter the Liberal government from exacerbating the demand for the sex trafficking of women and girls, Canadians can write to the Ambassador John R. Miller, Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State.

Ambassador John R. Miller
The Department of State (SA-22)
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Attention: TIP Report Section
1800 G Street NW, Ste. 2201
Washington, DC 20520
TIPREPORT@state.gov

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