Claiming that she has worked to raise awareness on this issue for the last five years, she parsed an attack on her detractors for accusing her of lobbying to weaken international laws or the laws of sovereign nations. Soon a spokesman at Mrs. Clinton s office was saying she has not been involved in the Vienna negotiations, leaving the important work to her staff and nongovernment organizations, or NGOs, that support legalization of prostitution through this artful change in definition, say critics. Upset about this stir, the first lady s Interagency Council on Women issued a fact sheet on the issue, attempting to debunk what they call myths that have been circulating about their position. They reiterated their commitment that the treaty would not undermine the current 1949 U.N. treaty. They went on to say, however, how closely they are working with Human Rights Watch and the International Human Rights Law Group and how their position enjoys broad support by many countries and activists.
Prostitution is illegal everywhere in the United States except in two counties of Nevada.
Reagan Ralph of Human Rights Watch asserts that getting the treaty passed is paramount and that making a concession to a country such as the Netherlands, which has legal prostitution, is worthwhile if it enables the treaty to be approved. But the United States is supposed to be a leader, responds Lisa Thompson, policy representative with the National Association of Evangelicals, one of the religious groups working hard to fight sex trafficking. To agree to this language because some other European country wants it is ridiculous. Finalization of the wording on the crime convention will be dragging on for at least another eight months. So it remains to be seen whether the scuffle over efforts to legalize the sex trade by treaty will turn into a donnybrook.