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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Anna KARAMANOU |
| Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities |
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| PUBLIC MEETING |
Brussels, 19.01.2004 |
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Introductory
remarks The globalisation
of the economy has not only applied to the classic sectors of economic
activities: crime has also followed these tendencies and has profited
from the opening-up of markets worldwide. The same is seen in prostitution,
which currently has overblown the margins of local, restricted markets,
at the edge between legality and crime and has profited from the globalised
exchanges not only for the movement of services but also for the expansion
of this trade. Offer and demand acknowledge no set frontiers not only
for the illegal aspects of trafficking and drug-dealing and other
related crimes but also for the research of various forms of prostitution
from the users of these services. The same applies to pornography,
which has become not only aggressive, but also clearly illegal in
its efforts to surpass all impediments and provide the widest range
of services possible or impossible. These two forms of dealing in human
bodies represent a serious amount of worldwide exchanges and the income
thus generated comes only second to the money from trading in arms.
At the same time, no single government has the means to fight against
this trade, in view of its widespread connections. However, the expansion
and the new forms of the trade in human flesh is now such, that a
serious effort has to be undertaken to protect society and the victims
from the organised crime, which prostitution and pornography have
now become. Our Committee with this public hearing
opens the dialogue on this burning issue.
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