Revive Sex Offences Bill - Village Magazine

February 2016 57

he Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015

had passed through the Seanad and was

before the Dáil. However, unfortunately the

Bill will not be passed through the Dáil before

the 2016 General Election.

It is now vital to ensure that it is restored to the Dáil

at the same stage it had reached very early in the term

of the incoming government. The Bill represented

groundbreaking reform of sexual-offences law.

The Bill contains welcome changes to criminal-evi-

dence rules in sex-offence cases, for example by setting

out precise criteria restricting disclosure of victims’

counselling records to the defence, a practice which

currently causes great distress for victims. Other impor-

tant changes protect child witnesses from being

cross-examined in person by defendants in sex offence

trials; and prevent judges and barristers from

wearing wigs and gowns when a child witness is

giving evidence in such trials.

The sections that have received most attention

are those dealing with prostitution law. These

sections would criminalise the

purchaser of sexual services (the

client), while decriminalising the

seller (the person engaged in

prostitution). This change is

based on a law introduced in

Sweden in 1999. It would radically

reform our deeply ﬂawed prostitu-

tion law, under which both

prostitutes and clients are crimi-

nalised. By criminalising buyers of

sex, it will pave the way for an

approach to regulating prostitu

tion that recognises the lived reality of those in

prostitution, and that genuinely seeks to tackle sexual

exploitation of women.

Current Irish law focuses on prohibiting the visible

manifestation of prostitution through criminalising

offences of ‘loitering’ and ‘soliciting’. While these

offences are gender-neutral, most prosecutions in prac-

tice are brought against women, who will typically be

convicted of ‘soliciting’ and ordered to pay a ﬁne (which

many will go back to prostitution to pay). This model

clearly has not succeeded in reducing the numbers of

those engaged in prostitution; or in addressing the real

exploitation experienced by many of these women.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence

and Equality recently conducted a review of prostitution

law in recognition of the problems with our current law.

We received 800 written submissions, 80% of which

favoured the Swedish approach. These submissions

were drawn from a broad cross-section of civil society,

including trade unions, frontline medical workers, ser-

vice providers and those working with migrant women.

We heard evidence from Sweden that their law has been

effective in reducing prostitution levels, and has had a

positive normative effect on social attitudes to

sexuality.

The Committee also held a series of public hearings,

with input from those both for and against the Swedish

approach, and from those directly engaged in prostitu-

tion. We heard that women enter prostitution in Ireland

at a young age, many under 18. Many people are traf-

ﬁcked into prostitution and the vast majority are subject

to control by a third party, or pimped.

The report of the Committee, published in 2013, con-

cluded that prostitution is widely available

across Ireland. It is highly organised, highly prof-

itable, highly exploitative and largely controlled

by organised crime interests. That is the actual

reality of prostitution. Current Irish law has

failed to tackle this. We unani

mously recommended a radical

change with the adoption of the

Swedish approach to criminalise

only the client, the purchaser of

sex.

This Swedish law is based on a

view of prostitution as inherently

exploitative, amounting to gen-

der-based exploitation. Laws

based on this approach have

already been introduced in other

countries, including Canada,

Norway, Iceland and most recently Northern Ireland.

The changes we recommended were supported by a

wide range of organisations, including the Immigrant

Council of Ireland, the National Women's Council and

the Turn Off the Red Light campaign. Ultimately, they

were adopted by the Government and included in the

2015 Bill. The Bill was debated at length in the Seanad

over December and January.

The campaign for this Bill must now continue into

the next Dáil.

Its offer of important changes to sex-offences law

generally, its provisions to decriminalise those

engaged in selling sex and to criminalise those pur-

chasing sex, and its promise to tackle sexual

exploitation, particularly of children and those

engaged in prostitution must be defended and real-

ised without delay.

Revive Sex Offences Bill

Bill decriminalised sex workers,

criminalised those purchasing sex,

and changed evidence rules

by Ivana Bacik

Criminalising

buyers of sex will

regulate prostitution

sympathetically to

the lived reality of

those in prostitution