On April 29, 2025 an expert online discussion on the topic “Combating Demand that Fuels Human Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation” was held. українською
The event was organized by the CSO “Democracy Development Center” at the initiative of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Public Council under the inter-factional association “Equal Opportunities” of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service, the Higher School of Public Administration and with the support of UN Women in Ukraine.
The experts participated:
• Maria Dmytrieva, Program Director, “Democracy Development Center”, Ukraine;
• Representatives of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine;
• Representatives of the Higher School of Public Governance;
• Oleksandra Novikova, European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW);
• Tetiana Rudenko, Senior Project Officer, OSCE;
• Viviane Teitelbaum, Senator in the Belgian Senate; President of the European Centre of the International Council of Women;
• Héma Sibi, Executive Director, Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution (CAP), France;
• Dr. Ingeborg Kraus, psychological psychotherapist and trauma specialist, Germany;
• Dina Dominitz, National Anti-Trafficking Co-ordinator, Ministry of Justice, Israel;
• Yuliia Dorokhova, Head of the All-Ukrainian League “LEGALIFE”, Ukraine.
The topics were presented:
• “Combating Demand: OSCE Commitments and Positive Practices of Participating States, Tetiana Rudenko;
• “Trafficking and Prostitution: The Missing Link”, Viviane Teitelbaum;
• “Spotlight on Israel’s approach to reducing demand — new law criminalizing consumption of prostitution and Government funded exit programs and aid for persons in prostitution”, Dina Dominitz.
The Executive Director of the Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution (CAP) Héma Sibi explained how CAP has already provided assistance to 19,000 affected women in different countries: “Many at the grassroots level have already understood that prostitution is violence, and that it systematically targets the poorest, most vulnerable women and girls around the world. “We should call it a crime and fight the demand, as the Swedish model does – the model of equality. Sex cannot be sold, prostitution is incompatible with human dignity, it is a crime against women.”
Models of a complete criminal ban on all those involved in prostitution or, conversely, legalization of everything including pimping, have not worked. The Swedish model of combating demand works and it has already been approved in 9 countries, including the state of Maine in the USA. “During the first 10 years of the Nordic model in Sweden, human traffickers don`t want to operate in this country any more. In France, significant positive changes have also been observed in 9 years. We managed to withdraw more than 2,000 people from prostitution, 45% of whom are now residents, have learned French and are working. “65 human trafficking networks were stopped, 14 million euros of criminal funds were confiscated, money also went to the protection of women. A fine for the buyer of sex was introduced – 5,000 euros, about 10 thousand men were fined over the years. After that, 60% of them came to the conclusion that they would not buy sex anymore. 60% of these men have children, most of them are also married,” Héma Sibi said. According to her, this topic is also very important for Ukraine, which is currently suffering from war. Since 2022, the number of search queries for “Ukrainian women” has increased by 600%, the number of Ukrainian women in German brothels has also increased 5 times, and the number of abductions of women into sexual slavery is increasing.
In turn, the head of the European Network of Migrant Women, Oleksandra Novikova, said that she has been living abroad for 13 years, and all the migrant women she knows, without exception, have been offered “work” in prostitution. Migrant women are the most vulnerable group, they do not know the language, have no legal status, they are financially insecure, often in debt, and afraid to seek help because they may be deported. Accordingly, Ukrainian women abroad are hunted upon by pimps, who promise them money and help, literally from the moment they cross the border, and even then, women are afraid to go to the police because they will be accused of a crime. “There should be access to legal status for victims of prostitution. They should know that they will not be deported. We need help from lawyers, psychologists, doctors, support with housing, finding a job, learning the language,” says Oleksandra Novikova.
As OSCE representative Tetyana Rudenko confirmed, in 2022, immediately after the Russian invasion, there was a surge in online demand for Ukrainian women, and within a few months, the requests were refined to: “access to Ukrainian refugee women.” Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, rather than some other form of labor slavery, is different: the victim is directly affected. Each OSCE country must implement its own approaches to combating the demand for sexual exploitation. After all, only 5-10% of victimized women enter this activity with some choice, more than 80% do it under duress or pressure. The buyers are men who have money and families. They don`t care whether the prostituted person went into it voluntarily or whether she is being raped. The demand for prostitution is accompanied by the activities of various criminal groups. Everyone benefits, including official landlords of premises – everyone except women. According to data from the USA, Tetyana Rudenko says, 78% of buyers have stable jobs, and it is possible to retrain them from buying people involving the policy of employers.
Senator in the Belgian Senate, President of the European Centre of the International Council of Women Viviane Teitelbaum emphasized that interested circles prefer not to notice the direct connection between human trafficking and prostitution. The legislation ignores an absolutely obvious phenomenon: people are sold to provide the demand for prostitution. This means that prohibiting the sale of people and at the same time allowing prostitution is futile. The connection between human trafficking and sexual exploitation is not recognized, although many speak of the need to reduce demand, but prostitution is the only reason of sexual exploitation.
“Every time during re-elections, we abandon women as if they themselves agreed to it, and we become accomplices in the crime. The legitimacy of prostitution exposes human traffickers as some kind of abstract criminals, but the connection of this crime with the prostitution of people is direct. Prostitution in Belgium was legitimized in 2022, supposedly to help women, but in reality, they have no protection, Belgium promotes the sale of people under the pretext of charity. Pimps have become businessmen. Taking the New Zealand model as a basis, Belgian politicians have even crossed out the fact that pimping was prosecuted before this law, but now it is not. You can write anything you want in contracts for “work”, but in the end the client always has the advantage, it is impossible to counteract violence when it is built into the system.
90% of victims in Belgium are from abroad, most of them are fleeing poverty. Exploitation has not disappeared, it has changed its mask. They have written into the law that prostitution is work, but human trafficking is hidden, ignored. “Laws matter, if they are poorly written, they facilitate crime, introduce it into the system under the guise of legality. We must repeal legislation that legitimizes human trafficking, we must fight for the lives of women and girls so that no woman is left sold, bought or forgotten,” the Belgian senator concluded.
National Anti-Trafficking Co-ordinator of Ministry of Justice of Israel Dina Dominitz’s presentation showed the implementation of the 2019 law banning the prostitution and human trafficking business in Israel – a system of fines or alternative measure workshops for consumers, and rehabilitation measures for victims. “Simple police work is not enough. We have a comprehensive approach to re-educating buyers so that after a fine they do not return to this “service”, comprehensive assistance to women – legal, medical, financial,” says Dina Dominitz. According to her, at the beginning of the adoption of this law, only 5% believed that it would work, and among the specialists involved, only 13% believed. Nevertheless, the law was approved because people knew it was morally right. Now, after a few years, the majority already believes in the effectiveness of this model, having seen the result. Gender expert Maria Dmitrieva cited similar data for Sweden: in 1999, only about a third of the population supported the equality model, and now more than 70%.
The head of the All-Ukrainian League “Legalife” Yulia Dorokhova also spoke about the inadmissibility of legalizing prostitution in Ukraine, in particular, about the already existing facts of involving vulnerable groups of women in this business by some law enforcement officers. According to her, there are already about 100 thousand people in Ukraine who have been involved in prostitution, mostly women. They often resort to it out of desperation to feed their children. Ukraine needs to adopt a model for getting out of prostitution, and not push for its legalization along with the legalization of pornography during the war. “There is the experience of France, where the state gives women a chance to survive and break free from prostitution. We also have Article 181, Part 1 of the Administrative Code, which fines prostituted women. It needs to be removed, because it helps the police to drag women into further prostitution,” said Yulia Dorokhova.
According to the founder of “Trauma and Prostitution” network, Ingeborg Kraus, the vulnerability of Ukrainian women was further exacerbated by the full-scale Russian invasion: when Ukrainian women fleeing the war reached Germany, they were already being hunted by traffickers at train stations. According to research, 1.2 million men now use legalized prostitution in Germany every day, and women involved in it suffer humiliation and torture. “I tried to talk to politicians, but it’s very difficult in Germany. When legalizing prostitution, they listened to businessmen, not experts who deal with traumatized women. 20 years ago, two opposing models were proposed, Germany chose the legalization of prostitution and became the brothel of Europe, a hub for human trafficking and pimping. If you choose the path of Germany in Ukraine, you will become hell on earth. Brothels have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain in a matter of days. Profits have been reported to be up to 50 billion euros a year. All buyers of sex, which is ¼ of all men, know about the situation prostituted women are in, but they don’t care. The law that supposedly “protects” women from violence doesn’t work; only one man has been convicted under it. “Women don’t know the language, they don’t have other jobs, they are intimidated, they are tricked,” the expert says. Ingeborg Kraus also emphasizes that the committees “don’t see” the connection between human trafficking and prostitution. Every year, fewer and fewer victims of human trafficking are identified, not because there are none, but because the state has washed its hands of them. They can advertise a brothel as a “clean business,” even though investigations into it show that violence reigns there every day. “We call on Germany at the international level to do something about this, human trafficking and prostitution have become integrated into the local business. PTSD in victims of prostitution is twice as common as in victims of war. Prostitution is not freedom, it is its opposite. “We also introduced registration for prostituted women, but in 8 years only 43,000 have registered, which is about 10%, no one wants to write that in their passport,” said the German psychotherapist.
During the discussion participants also mentioned a recent study conducted in France, according to which the legalization of pimping does not bring more money to the budget than it washes out of it due to the terrible consequences.
The meeting was the third event in a series of expert online discussions dedicated to modern challenges in the field of combating human trafficking.
This series of events was organized by the CSO “Democracy Development Center” at the initiative of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Public Council under the inter-factional association “Equal Opportunities” of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the National Agency of Ukraine for Civil Service, the Higher School of Public Administration and with the support of UN Women in Ukraine.
