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From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
A group, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) international (New York) yesterday, called on the Nigerian government to adopt the Abolitionist/Sankara Equality Model which decriminalizes and reintegrates the victims of prostitution and trafficking through psychosocial support, while penalizing their exploiters saying such would curb the scourge of sex trafficking in the country.
The Executive Director of CATW, Taina Bien-Aime, made the call during an International Community Unites To Support Efforts To Combat Sex Trafficking In Nigeria With The Screening Of Oloture In Abuja And Benin City.
She said the Equality Model also known as the Nordic or Abolitionist Model and in Africa, the Sankara Equality Model is a legal framework that recognizes the system of prostitution as a form of gender -based violence and discrimination and functions as a tool to prevent sex trafficking.
She listed the four components of the model as decriminalizing only those bought and sold for sexual acts, holding sex buyers, pimps, traffickers, brothel owners and the crimes they perpetrate, provide prostituted persons comprehensive medical services, educational opportunities and exit strategies and committing to educating the public about why prostitution is a barrier to equality and to protecting human rights.
She said the countries that have adopted this model, such as Sweden and France, have witnessed a decrease in the male demand for sexual acts as well as a rise in the prosecution of pimps and traffickers.
Bien-Aime said this is the path she hopes Nigeria should take if the government wishes to protect the most marginalized women and effectively combat the trafficking and pimp networks
Speaking on the movie titled, “Oloture”, she said the Oloture tracks the means set forth in the international legal definition of trafficking: the deception, coercion, vulnerability and the exchange of money to lure, to purchase control and consent.
On the part of the Edo State government, the Executive Secretary, Edo State Taskforce Against Human Trafficking, Itohan Okungbowa, the state government has done much in fighting the menace of sex trafficking just as she blamed the scourge on the inability of the victims to volunteer information to help bring the culprits to book.
