To: Yves Charpenel, President of the “Scelles” Foundation, France.

Re: “The Global Report on Sexual Exploitation – Prostitution at the core of organized crime” (fr. «Rapport Mondial sur l’exploitation sexuelle. La Prostitution au Cœur du crime organisé »), Scelles Foundation, France.

Dear Mr. President,

On behalf of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mission in Moldova and the International Centre for Women Rights Protection and Promotion “La Strada” we feel obliged to express our concerns with regard to the recent launch of the report on sexual exploitation broadly publicized in French and Moldovan mass media. We find rather superficial your statement “… for example, in Moldova, an extremely poor country, 70% of women aged 15 to 25 have practiced prostitution at least once” (fr. En Moldavie par exemple, pays extrêmement pauvre, 70% des femmes de 15 à 25 ans se sont prostituées au moins une fois), which undermines, in our view, the international and national efforts in fighting trafficking in human beings.

It’s been over a decade since the international community has recognized trafficking in persons as a severe violation of human rights. This was laid down and defined in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

Although advancing the fight against trafficking in persons is still a challenge in many countries and regions, important breakthroughs have been achieved: the anti-trafficking community has shifted the discourse from punitive border control, prosecution of sex work, restrictive labour to the eradication of exploitative working conditions. This shift is due to the acknowledged ineffectiveness of those policies that are adversely affecting the very people they should be protecting. Thousands of lives have fallen victims to the states’ failure to protect human rights – it is those women and men who have “paved the way” towards this shift and today, more than ever, these achievements require continuous sustained efforts and speaking with one voice.

To view the full letter, please open the document attached.