June 2024

21 June 2024, 56th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women presented a groundbreaking report highlighting the pervasive violence against women and girls perpetuated in the system of prostitution.

The report unequivocally condemns the complicity of "pimp states" who legalise and profit from the exploitation of prostitution, including several EU States, criticising their failure to protect vulnerable groups from sexual exploitation.

In her report, UN Special Rapporteur rejects the notion that decriminalisation of pimping and buying of sexual acts is a viable solution to violence in prostitution. The report underscores that such an approach fails to address the root causes and systemic violence inherent to prostitution, perpetuating impunity of perpetrators and leaving behind the most vulnerable.

Despite the overwhelming substantive evidence presented, during the Interactive Dialogue between the Special Rapporteur and UN States, several EU states - notably, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Croatia and Switzerland - chose to ignore it, instead citing he perspectives of those actors in the system of prostitution who benefit from its exploitation..