Despite the murder of a young Polish prostitute, Daria Pionko, in Leeds just
days before Christmas, a pilot-schemed “red-light” district has been
given the go-ahead and will become a permanent feature of the city.
Within the Holbeck region of the city, prostitutes will face a substantially
reduced likelihood of arrest for loitering, soliciting and kerb crawling between
7AM and 7PM while complying with some specific rules. The reason for the City
Council’s decision is that efforts to reduce the incidents of prostitution over
the last 10 years have failed and, in the interests of the safety of the
prostitutes it is thought that this is the best approach.
Sign this petition to Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central, asking him
to overturn the decision of the City Council and implement alternative measures
which will really help prostitutes leave a profession the vast majority do not
want to be in.
http://www.citizengo.org/en/pc/32695-murder-leeds-managed-red-light-district-shows-it-time-stop-it
Beyond taking away the fear of prosecution, this managed district does very
little to solve the very real dangers that come with being a prostitute.
Women in prostitution are 18 times more likely than the general
population to be murdered, and the reasons why this is the case remain
completely unaddressed.
Those who sell their bodies through sex experience post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety disorders at levels similar to
those who have been in armed combat: this is a not a line of work that
should be encouraged in any way.
Demand drives prostitution: if nobody purchased sex, prostitution
would be eradicated. One of the many sad realities about prostitution
is that it only exists because certain members of the population (most of whom
are male) continue to demand it. When those who (ab)use women working as
prostitutes were asked if having their name and picture made public, if being
given a criminal record or a fine, or if being added to the sex offenders
register would deter them from buying sex, 80-85% confirmed that it
would.
Sign this
petition to Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central, urging him to overrule
the City Council’s decision and asking instead that he pursue alternative means
to help those who are trapped in prostitution.
http://www.citizengo.org/en/pc/32695-murder-leeds-managed-red-light-district-shows-it-time-stop-it
Over 90% of prostitutes across a number of countries have said that
they want to escape prostitution immediately. Rather than providing a
“managed” area for them to “work” it would be far better to promote routes for
them to escape from it, and pursue those who use prostitutes rather than the
prostitutes themselves. The fact that some people end up in prostitution as a
result of human trafficking, is yet another consideration which Leeds City
Council appear not to have taken into account.
Sincerely,
Greg Jackson and the entire CitizenGO team
PS The women involved in prostitution are in large part, not their due to
their own choice. They deserve our help. Sign this petition to Leeds
Central MP Hilary Benn, to remind him of this fact and urging him to overrule
the City Council’s decision.
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