European Parliament resolution on forced prostitution in the context of world sports events
Date: 2006-03-15
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: fight against crime, help for victims, organised crime, prostitution, public awareness campaign, sporting event, trafficking in human beings

C 291 E/292

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.11.2006

Wednesday, 15 March 2006

P6_TA(2006)0086

Forced prostitution in the context of world sports events

European Parliament resolution on forced prostitution in the context of world sports events

The European Parliament,

— having regard to International Women's Day on 8 March 2006,

— having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (1), and in particular Article

5(3) thereof, which states that ‘trafficking in human beings is prohibited’,

— having regard to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, which

entered into force on 4 January 1969,

— having regard to the United Nations Convention of 18 December 1979 on the Elimination of All Forms

of Discrimination against Women,

— having regard to the recent communication from the Commission entitled ‘Fighting trafficking in human

beings — an integrated approach and proposals for an action plan’ (COM(2005)0514),

— having regard to the Council's EU action plan on best practices, standards and procedures for combating

and preventing trafficking in human beings (2),

— having regard to its resolution of 17 January 2006 on strategies to prevent the trafficking of women and

children vulnerable to sexual exploitation (3),

— having regard to the Council of Europe's Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings,

— having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ILO Convention on the Worst

Forms of Child Labour,

— having regard to Rule 108(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas trafficking in human beings, particularly women and children, for sexual or other forms of
the most serious human rights violations and whereas such trafficking is

exploitation,
increasing as organised crime expands and becomes more profitable,

is one of

B. whereas forced prostitution, as a form of exploitation of women and children, is a major problem and is

harmful not only to the women and children concerned but also to society as a whole,

C. whereas experience has shown that any major sporting event at which large numbers of people congre-

gate results in a temporary and spectacular increase in the demand for sexual services,

D. whereas most trafficked women are victims of organised crime, having been recruited with the help of
false documents, lured by job offers and often deceived by false promises of legitimate employment,
before being forced to work as prostitutes,

E. whereas,

if all Member States followed practices such as effective use of communications tools and
coherent awareness campaigns, with the involvement of the media and well-known sports personalities,
this could have a positive influence on changing the way people think and behave,

(1) OJ C 364, 18.12.2000, p. 1.
(2) OJ C 311, 9.12.2005, p. 1.
(3) Texts Adopted, P6_TA(2006)0005.

30.11.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 291 E/293

Wednesday, 15 March 2006

1. Welcomes the campaign launched by the German National Council of Women and calls for cross-
border cooperation and exchanges of best practice; stresses the need for an integrated Europe-wide campaign
and therefore calls on the Member States to launch and promote the campaign in close cooperation with all
parties concerned, in other words the relevant NGOs, the police, law enforcement agencies, sports associa-
tions and organisations, churches, and social and medical services;

2. Calls on Germany and the other Member States to set up a multilingual telephone hotline followed by a
high-profile publicity campaign designed to provide the necessary information, counselling, safe housing and
legal aid to women and children and other victims forced into prostitution and in order to inform other
victims, who frequently find themselves isolated in residential units or industrial zones, unable to speak the
language of the country of transit or destination and with no basic information on whom to turn to or
what to do;

including FIFA, UEFA, the
3. Calls on the International Olympic Committee and sports associations,
German Football Association and others, as well as sportsmen and -women themselves, to support the ‘Red
card’ campaign and roundly condemn trafficking in human beings and forced prostitution;

4. Calls on the Commission and Member States to launch a Europe-wide campaign during international
sports events to inform and educate the general public, and particularly sports people, sports fans and
supporters, about the scale of the problem of forced prostitution and trafficking in human beings and, most
importantly, to seek to curb demand by raising awareness among potential clients;

5. Calls on the Commission and Member States to launch a prevention campaign targeting potential
victims and informing them of the risks and dangers of becoming caught up in human trafficking networks
and thus becoming victims of forced prostitution and sexual exploitation, and also providing them with
information as to their rights and where they can obtain assistance in countries of destination;

6. Reiterates its requests for the launch in 2006 of an Anti-Trafficking Day to raise awareness on the issue
of trafficking in all its aspects, as well as for the introduction of free telephone help lines; recalls the need to
gather data concerning trafficking in human beings at EU level and for the close association of Europol and
Eurojust in the fight against this scourge;

7 Urges all Member States to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in
Human Beings, which sets out minimum standards for the protection of the victims of trafficking in human
beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation, as well as to implement Council Directive 2004/81/EC on
residence permits for victims of trafficking (1);

8. Urges those Member States which have not respected the deadline of 1 August 2004 for the implemen-
tation of Council Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA (2) on combating trafficking in human beings to take
immediate action, and calls the Commission and the Council to produce urgently the assessment report
provided for in the Framework Decision;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments

9.
of the Member States, the German Football Association, and the accession and candidate countries.

(1) OJ L 261, 6.8.2004, p. 19.
(1) OJ L 203, 1.8.2002, p. 1.