Prostitution victim leads charge against Amnesty International

LifeSiteNews 18 September 2015
Her life in the sex trade, and her decision to get out, has made her a leading campaigner against Amnesty’s policy. The author of “Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution,” speaks openly of the violence, isolation, and drug abuse inherent in prostitution. What people like her need, she says, is help getting out.

Once prostitution is legal, “there is no incentive for the government to provide exit strategies for those who want to get out of it,” Rachel wrote.

Her path began as an orphan in Ireland. At 15, “I was on the streets with no home, education or job skills. All I had was my body.”

Abusing drugs is “as common to women in prostitution as wiping down tables would be to a waitress,” she says. “The daily reality is trauma, and you want to escape that.”

Amnesty’s resolution “supports the full decriminalization of all aspects of consensual sex work.” The group claimed it “addressed the issue from the perspective of international human rights standards.”

Treaties, however, proscribe prostitution – especially of children – calling it “incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person” and endangers “the welfare of the individual, the family and the community.”

Amnesty’s pro-prostitution campaign focused on women who theoretically choose to engage in “sex work” and diverted attention away from pimps, brothels and johns – those who gain the most from normalizing the sex trade.

“It’s nonsense to say a person can be empowered by allowing their body to be as open to the public as a train or bus station,” Rachel said. And consent requires viable choices and alternatives.

When prostitution is socially endorsed, the market expands. “Where are these new bodies coming from?” Rachel asks. “Young women with choices are not going to say, ‘I’ll go into the sex trade instead of going to college.’”

“No. Socially disadvantaged young girls are funnelled straight into prostitution.”
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