EWL members support sex trade survivor Rosen and call for French abolitionist law on prostitution

[Brussels, 16 October 2014] Last week, during the Annual Meeting of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) in Lisbon, EWL members took action to express their support to Rosen Hicher, a sex trade survivor, who has marched 800 km in France to call for an abolitionist law on prostitution. A proposal of law to abolish the system of prostitution in France had been adopted by the French National Assembly last year and is still waiting for the Senate to vote on it. On Thursday 10 October, EWL members did an action on social media to support Rosen by taking photos with the hashtag #enmarcheavecrosen. The EWL, together with its French coordination (CLEF), also wrote today to the French Prime Minister to support France’s developments towards equality between women and men. Last Sunday (12 October), Rosen arrived in Paris and was welcomed by a crowd of NGOs and decision-makers. Her action has been heard by French politicians: 200 mayors and local decision-makers co-signed an open letter asking their colleagues in the Senate to put the proposal of law back on the agenda. Anne Hidalgo, first female Mayor of Paris, published an article on the same day of Rosen’s arrival, to call for political courage to stop a system exploiting the most vulnerable ones. Rosen has initiated a petition, which has received more than 21 000 signatures until now. Survivors of Strasbourg have expressed their support to Rosen. The EWL would like to pay tribute to Rosen for her courage and determination, and hope that her initiative will guarantee that France adopts quickly a strong legislation protecting women in prostitution and offering them exit programmes, preventing prostitution, and criminalising buyers, pimps and traffickers. Blog of Mayors and local decision-makers for the abolition of prostitution: http://mairespourlabolition.wordpress.com/. Blog of the march of Rosen Hicher: https://marchepourlabolition.wordpress.com/. An article on the mobilisation of mayors and videos of Rosen. Press coverage of Rosen’s march.

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