On this sad occasion of Sigma Huda’s death, we extend our deepest condolences to her loved ones. Sigma was an unparalleled abolitionist activist with whom we had the pleasure to work many times over the years. Here we share an episode of our webinar series Debunking ‘Sex Work’ in which Sigma, alongside Mickey Meji, discusses Legal Frameworks and State Responsibility.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/75KHLdNd2cV6wiFbz1Lxjs?si=7a8b3a41ec184079
We were devastated to hear of the death of our friend and fellow abolitionist activist Sigma Huda. We decided to publish this letter written by Dorchen A. Leidholdt, whose sentiments we share entirely. Sigma will be sadly missed.
Dear sisters, Sigma Huda’s death is a major loss for our movement. Sigma was an unparalleled feminist abolitionist leader. For many decades she was a major leader in the women’s rights movement in Bangladesh. Founder of the Bangladeshi Women’s Lawyers Association, Sigma took on many significant cases involving issues of violence and discrimination against women, including one in which the homes of prostituted women in a “red light” district in Dhaka were razed by the government. In 2004 Sigma was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons and shortly thereafter issued a groundbreaking report on demand. For more about Sigma’s contributions as Special Rapporteur see the PowerPoint slides attached. Sigma was very much the precursor of the extraordinary Reem Alsalem.
After she stepped down as Special Rapporteur, Sigma resumed her feminist advocacy in Bangladesh and remained an important contributor to the work of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. She and her very supportive husband Nazmul were partners in a highly respected law firm in Dhaka known for its human rights work. Nazmul was also a very successful politician. When his party lost power in 2007, both Sigma and he were arrested and imprisoned on charges that were clearly politically motivated and called into question by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of the Judiciary. Jan Raymond and I traveled to Dhaka in 2008 to visit Sigma in prison and advocate for her release.
Sigma and Nazmul, who died in 2023, had two wonderful feminist daughters, Antara and Srabanti, who will undoubtedly carry on their pioneering work, as will her sister Khushi Kabir, also a feminist social justice advocate. We extend to them our deepest condolences.
Dorchen
Dorchen A. Leidholdt, Esq.
Theresa A. Havell Senior Director
Sanctuary for Families
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CBWLS – Advancing and Defending the Rights of Gender Violence Survivors
Manifesto of feminist, survivor-led and grassroots NGOs for the 2024 EU elections
We feminist, survivor-led and grassroots NGOs, call on candidates to the EU elections to support the Equality Model recognising prostitution as a form of violence against women.
We observe that throughout the world, prostitution is a violence that first and foremost impacts women and girls from discriminated communities: Indigenous, migrant, refugee, poor women and girls, those from oppressed castes or minorities. Europe does not escape this reality: 70% of prostituted persons are migrant women1!
Why do we support the Equality Model and we think you should too? CAP International have put together this document to tell you why we are fighting for the Equality Model and what it is!
WHY SUPPORT THE EQUALITY MODEL ON PROSTITUTION?
Major victory in Europe : the EU Parliament calls on Member States to implement all the components of the Abolitionist model on prostitution
We’re thrilled to share this press release written by CAP International, a coalition of which IROKO is a member, which explains the recent victory at the EU Parliament.
The Report adopted by the European Parliament calling for the adoption of the abolitionist model in all member states fits perfectly with the Italian context where, due to persistent migratory flows arriving especially from the African continent, trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation continues to be an endemic phenomenon.
The introduction in Italy of a full-blown abolitionist model that provides for the criminalisation of those who purchase a sexual service and concrete exit services for women in prostitution would mean not only putting in place a concrete action against human trafficking but also clearly enshrining the inviolability of women’s bodies. It would mean putting an end to the prostitution system, which is a system fueled by social inequalities, exploitation and based on the disparity of rights between men and women.
The Italian abolitionist movement, therefore, will continue to strive for our state to implement in full the recommendations expressed by the European Parliament and will persevere in advancing the principle that prostitution cannot be considered a job like any other because it is detrimental to the dignity of the human being.
On 8 May 2023, the Royal Thai Embassy in Athens welcomed the delegation from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Thailand’s Ministry of Justice, headed by Police Major Siriwish Chantechasitkul, Director of the Human Trafficking Crimes Bureau. The delegation visited Greece in order to participate in the Workshop “Integrated for Human Trafficking in Europe.” Both sides exchanged views on the prosecution and prevention of human trafficking crimes, as well as the protection of Thai nationals in Greece for future cooperation and inter-agency coordination.
As part of the Workshop “Integrated for Human Trafficking in Europe” – organised by DSI Networks in Europe on 7 May 2023 – Mr. Pornsith Pibulnakarintr, Chargé d’Affaires of the Royal Thai Embassy, delivered an opening remark and gave a presentation under the topic of “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Role in Providing Assistance in Human Trafficking Cases.” Approximately 50 DSI volunteers from different European countries participated in this workshop.
Seminars and Workshops on the topic of human trafficking and related laws of the European DSI network included Thai members living in 12 countries: Thailand, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherland, Norway, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.
We had seminars at The War Museum of Greece and the Ambassador of Thailand in Greece gave a speech at the opening session to educate the members. There were also other qualified speakers, including:
Police Major Siriwit Chantechasitkul, Director of Human Trafficking Litigation Division
Ms. Natthaphon Bunyakorn, Director of the Crime Prevention Network
Mrs. Kanoklada Charoensiri, Director of Inspection Division 2, Technology and Center Division
Mr. Paphawin Manyawut, Special Case Investigation Officer, Special Expertise
duty Deputy Director of Human Trafficking Litigation Division
Mr. Thanaphong Worasiha,
Special Investigators Ms. Wirawan Mosby, NGO from The Hug Project, Thailand
Dr. Esohe Aghatise from Iroko Onlus, Italy.
Our Director Esohe Aghatise spoke on trafficking and prostitution and explained why it would be a disaster for Thailand to adopt the German or Dutch models on prostitution.
Today, 8th March 2023 – International Women’s Day – we unite with our sisters and colleagues at CAP International and all of its members, to share these images and demand the abolition of prostitution, the oldest oppression in the world!
DICK PICS 101: comment on Please Acknowledge the Dick’: Inside a catfishing factory written by Yağmur Uygarkızı
‘PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE THE DICK
* -> if a customer shares a photo of it, pay it a compliment
* -> if they mention their size in inches, say something positive
* > if they bring it up, encourage them to show you it
The worst thing that you can do is ignore the dick pic
OUR BUSINESS IS PROVIDING ENTERTAINMENT AND FANTASIES’
A journalist went undercover in a sex-chat company. What did he find out? What feminists already knew.
For more than a $1 per message, men get to have sexual conversations with what they think are actual women. Operators, based anywhere in the world, from Zimbabwe to the Philippines, are paid ‘$0.06 per message’. A woman reported: “I had to work so much, like 10 hours a day, just to earn a decent amount. That’s why I stopped. It’s good part-time, but you can’t actually depend on it,”
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY UNITES TO SUPPORT EFFORTS TO COMBAT
SEX TRAFFICKING IN NIGERIA WITH THE SCREENING OF OLOTURE IN ABUJA AND BENIN CITY
WHAT: The Gloria Steinem Equality Fund to End Sex Trafficking and its local partner Associazione Iroko Onlus invite you to a press conference on sex trafficking prior to the screening of Nigerian film Òlòturé directed by Kenneth Gyang and produced by EbonyLife Films. The film will be followed by a high-level panel discussion on sex trafficking and a reception. This event has been jointly supported by the Embassies of Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United States as well as FIIAPP and UN Women.
Here you can find the full text.
Press review:
New publication: Gender-specific integration model (GeSIM) for victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and abuse
In order to effectively implement gender-specific integration programmes for female third country nationals who are victims of trafficking in human beings (THB), service providers need to integrate gender as well as cultural sensitivity into their everyday work. This handbook is a step towards strengthening victim support service providers and your individual capacity as practitioner in taking gender-specific approaches and setting up gender-specific support programmes for women victims of THB.
The Gender-specific integration model (GeSIM) is published within the framework of the project “COALESCE: Legal, Psycho-social and economic empowerment for the integration of women third country nationals (TCN) victims of human trafficking (VoT) for sexual exploitation and abuse“ (Coalesce Project EC AMIF: 958133), led by the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) (Cyprus).
Partners: Cyprus Refugee Council (Cyprus), CARITAS Cyprus, IROKO Onlus (Italy), Marta Centre (Latvia), European Network of Migrant Women, Immigrant Council Ireland, Solwodi(Germany), KSPSC (Lithuania).
The GeSIM handbook is available in: English, German, Greek, Italian, Latvian and Lithuanian.
For more information on the COALESCE Project and our other publications, click here.
To mark International Migrants Day, 18th December 2021, the COALESCE consortium published this policy brief summarising the gaps in support services for women victims of trafficking, both across Europe and specifically here in Italy, and our recommendations for what our governments need to do to guarantee effective protection and integration.