Amsterdam wants no business deals with prostitutes

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Amsterdam wants no business deals with prostitutes

Postby sam » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:25 am

Amsterdam wants no business deals with prostitutes
http://www.radionetherlands .nl/currentaffairs/080717-amsterdam-prostitution

By Maria Punch
17-07-2008

Amsterdam City Council has decided not to rent out former brothels in the red light district to prostitutes operating independently. NV Stadsgoed, a real estate developer, researched the possibility but decided to withdraw from the project, saying there was no way to ensure that women were not exploited in some way.

The city council had joined forces with Stadsgoed in an attempt to clean up the red light district and prevent exploitation and human trafficking, and in 2006 a number of brothel operators were refused permits. Charles Geerts, one of the important players in the sex business, was forced to close down several of his businesses.

The council then bought up some of his buildings and rented them out as shops and galleries. It was also the intention to rent some of the space to independent prostitutes. The council thought it would be a unique opportunity for them to improve their situation and be recognised as self-employed businesswomen.

Now that plan has been scrapped, it is unclear what the council intends to do with the property. However, Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen had earlier indicated that he wants to reduce the concentration of prostitution in the area, and create more opportunities for bona fide businesses.

Mariska Majoor of the Prostitution Information Centre is extremely disappointed by the council's decision.

"Amsterdam could have taken an important step towards improving working conditions for all prostitutes. These are perfectly safe and clean rooms,"

says Ms Majoor, once a prostitute herself.

Recently, six members of a gang led by two Turkish-German brothers were convicted for people trafficking. They were active in the red light district in Amsterdam as well as in Germany and Belgium. Women were beaten, raped and forced into prostitution. Most of the victims were too scared to make a formal complaint against the gang.

The court in Almelo, a town in the eastern Netherlands, commented that the men had no respect for women whatsoever. Called the Sneep case, after the Dutch crime squad charged with investigating international people trafficking, it was the largest people trafficking case the Netherlands has ever seen.
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Re: Amsterdam wants no business deals with prostitutes

Postby MaggieH » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:04 pm

Legalization really works, doesn't it? :roll:

If you genuinely care about women, follow the example of Sweden: decriminalize prostitutes and offer them exit programs to escape "the life", and criminalize johns and pimps. Prosecute buyers (the ones who've always got 100% choice in the matter).
"The assumption that "most women are innately heterosexual'' stands as a theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease;. . . partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a "preference" at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and "innately" heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system of racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness. . ."
-- Adrienne Rich, in Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence: http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ~ Alice Walker
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