An open letter to the city of Huesca

September 23 marks the International Day Against Prostitution and Trafficking in Women. For this reason from this platform Huesca Abolitionists we wish to draw the attention of the citizens of Huesca to a situation which is not the lesser evil and it’s not a necessary thing (although it’s inconvenient to say the least). On the contrary: the prostitution-trafficking binomial is growing exponentially, serves no social function (therefore completely replaceable) and is not just an unpleasant truth for some. In fact, it is a powerful complex and invisible system that enables the rights of a large part of the populationmillions of women and girls around the world are trampled upon with impunity.

It is known that In our city alone there are about twenty apartments, besides some other premises, where prostitution is practised: an activity into which many women are forced by their circumstances of poverty or social marginalization and which, far from promoting their employment opportunities, legitimizes extreme violence against them and from which it is very difficult for them, if not impossible escape. Is there anything that can be done about it, individually or collectively, by the institutions? Definitely yes.

To start yes state level we already have a perfectly articulated feminist proposal that we need to know, discuss and support its urgent approval as a defense of the rights of many people who today do not have a voice: the Organic Law for the Elimination of Prostitution (LOASP).

Moreover, from our immediate surroundings, we can push for and support City Council approval of a municipal ordinance that collects its adherence to the Network of Trafficking and Prostitution Free Municipalities, as they have already done in many other cities in Spain, also in Aragon. The goals, partly overlapping with those of LOASP, are to prevent the expansion of the market for women and minors when they fail to eradicate it, to make citizens aware that its existence implies a violation of human rights, and to address attention to women and girls trapped in an unwanted situation of violence and exploitation.

It is expected, from the women’s area of ​​the City Council, the population of Huesca is aware of this problem. The tools to achieve this can be educational campaigns both for the general public and for young people and adolescents who start to see prostitution or sex tourism as another offer for free time and normalize sexual behavior based on the consumption and buying and selling of human beings. beings, in more or less brutal domination, not in a relationship of equality.

These campaigns on prostitution can be developed by centers of secondary and higher education, through conversations and debates with the participation of experts and/or activists who make great efforts to fight this form of slavery and strive for its abolition. It is not a question of banning the activity, nor of sanctioning those who offer sexual services on public roads (the prostitute), but only those who buy them; that is, the whores. For its part, the PPZSP would sanction the persons who facilitate them, mostly pimps.

These campaigns will be supplemented by others to collect signatures or distribute information brochures and posters in educational, sports or health centers, as well as in shops or on billboards. After the proposal is approved at the plenary session of the Municipal Council, place signs at city entrances indicating that the municipality is a member of the Network of Traffic-Free Municipalities and a warning about the penalties anyone who wants to buy sexual services in the area of ​​the municipality can suffer.

Naturally, these initiatives to raise awareness among citizens must be dropped accompanied by a community service that can advise, inform and care for women and girls from the municipality, who were victims of multiple forms of sexist violence and exploitation. It is about finding alternative housing and comprehensive care (psychological, legal, health and social work) for victims, especially for those who are in an irregular situation or at risk of exclusion. in parallel Police officers will have to launch operations against those who profit from the system of prostitution and trafficking of women.

Everyone wants a fairer and more equal society. But for some of us, it is not possible to live looking the other way when there are congeners around, people who continue to be bought and sold, traded as a commodity and enslaved for a price. It is not sex that is at stake, but human freedom and dignity, for there is no sexual freedom in violence or submission. If we do not act, we will have to continue to mark this infamous date on the calendar and consider ourselves complicit in this horror.