Ukraine
Prostitution policy: Prohibitionism – illegal
Persons in prostitution: 100.000
1) «Getting out of the circle of violence: the experience of prostitution survivors»
Within this event, women, who survived sexual exploitation, and social workers from different countries (Sweden, France, Canada, Ireland), which have already introduced the Equality Model, will share their experience of barriers on exiting prostitution and how social services and NGOs can help women in such situation.
2) «Equality model and law enforcement»
Within this event, police officers from different countries (Sweden, France, Canada, Israel), which have already introduced the Equality model, will share how they are working with vulnerable women and interact in this work with social services and shelters.
3) Expert discussion «Legislation and best practices to introduce the Equality Model»
Within this event, the foreign experts and parliamentarians will share their experience of working on corresponding draft laws in their countries (Sweden, France, Ireland, Canada, Latvia, the UK, Israel).
Intended audience: Ukrainian MPs, the security sector, judges, prosecutor’s office, Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Health Care, civil society organizations, wider public.
4) Special event for journalists “Equality Model for Ukraine: issues of coverage”
As part of this, foreign journalists will share their experience in covering the issue of sexual exploitation and information support of the Equality Model.
Intended audience: journalistic community of Ukraine, faculties of journalism of universities, intra-branch journalistic organizations of self-regulation.
youtu.be/H3JX10EDtGY
5) Expert discussion “1325 and combating conflict-related violence”
6) Expert discussion «Legislation: best practices to introduce the Equality Model»
> youtu.be/GRaI8iX8o5w
7) Competition of journalistic materials for the best coverage of the topic of the Equality Model
Starting from the first event on March 4 and until the end of April, we will accept journalistic materials for the competition.
We invite you to participate in any of these events at your convenience. The events will be held online, on the platform Zoom with recording and livestream to YouTube and Facebook. Each event is separately announced on FB and when you register you get a link to Zoom with translation.
We will also happily accept your suggestions as to experts and parliamentarians, whom we should invite to participate in these events.
The contact person and coordinator for this campaign is Democracy Development Center’s gender specialist Maria Dmytriyeva, phone / Viber / WhatsApp +38 063 100 37 51, email mdmytrieva@ddc.org.ua, who will be happy to answer all of your questions regarding this event and this campaign.
We also had the following relevant events last year (December 2020):
Sexual violence and exploitation – countermeasures facebook.com/events/371246747270606
“Women’s body is not a commodity” facebook.com/228980864124706/videos/309313676891226
Historical and legal side of prostitution in Ukraine
Not much is known about the historical context of the study of prostitution in Ukraine, because it is primarily a shadow business, so the statistics or stages of development are unidentified. It is known that in the world about 186 billion dollars are earned annually from prostitution, according to data from the European Parliament in 2014 (Sexual, 2014). Data for Ukraine vary and data on AIDS / HIV can be found more often than on the number of women involved in prostitution.
Back in 1987, prostitution was officially banned by order of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses has a separate article 181.1 – Prostitution. It states that those engaged in prostitution may receive warnings or pay a fine of 5 to 10 tax-free minimums (one tax-free minimum is equal to 17 hryvnias = 5.37 SEK) (Кодекс, 1984). This article appeared in the Code in 1987 and was supplemented later. That is, prostitution in Ukraine is subject only to the payment of an administrative fine, without criminal liability. Criminal liability for prostitution lasted from September 2001 to January 2006, and from January 12, 2006, only an administrative fine was again imposed. The pimping remained under criminal liability. And for 2020 this fine consists in payment from 85 to 170 hryvnias (26.84-53.67 SEK) and for repeated commission of an offense – from 136 to 255 hryvnias (43-80 SEK) whereas in the period from 2001 to 2006 for the same activity it was necessary to pay from 850 to 8500 hryvnias (268-2683 SEK).
Law enforcement seem to be more focused on ‘covering up’ brothels and pimps than on individual women involved into prostitution (Кива, 2020). But according to news in Ukrainian media it also happens that law enforcement or police officers blackmail and threaten women in prostitution to disclose information about them to relatives or families. For example, one of the police officers, using his official position, wanted to demand a bribe from a girl who was engaged in prostitution, so as not to reveal information about her to her family. Relatives may also threaten someone accused of prostitution, such as a father saying that he would tell everyone that his daughter had been fined prostitution if she did not leave the apartment. These are only those cases that have reached the court, but no criminal liability has been introduced for extortion. But women involved in prostitution in Ukraine could be used to expose brothels or pimps on the grounds that they will not be subject to an administrative report and their case will be rejected or closed.
There have been reports of police pretending not to noticing the existence of brothels in exchange for bribes. For example, in December 2019, police received a bribe of $ 2,000 a month for ‘covering up’ brothel owners (СБУ, 2019). Another policeman in the Odessa region demanded a bribe of $ 1,400 for hiding a brothel, for which he was detained (Поліцейський, 2019). But there are facts of detention, such as in October 2019, a brothel was exposed in Kyiv, which employed about 20 women and the pimp had an income of 70-100 thousand hryvnia per day (На Київщині, 2019). Such cases are usually difficult to detect, as they have a network of contacts and their own accountants, security guards, taxi drivers, etc.
Download
> Master Thesis Kateryna Krasnikova, 2020 – Media discourse of legalization of prostitution in Ukraine: intersectional analysis
Democracy Talks: the Swedish Model on Sex Trade Legislation
Streamed live on May 4, 2020
Countering sexual exploitation: presenting the benefits of the Swedish model
On Sep 25, 2019, a roundtable on the Nordic model of combating trafficking in human beings and prostitution was held in Kyiv, Ukraine. More than thirty representatives of state authorities and NGOs were present at the round table, broadcasting and recording provided by UKRINFORM, a state information and news agency of Ukraine.
The video is available here (in Ukrainian).
The experts explained the risks of legalization/ full decriminalization of prostitution and benefits of demand criminalization in the sex industry.
Deputy Ambassador of Sweden to Ukraine Louise Morsing stated that with the adoption of the Nordic model, fewer and fewer Swedes consider prostitution a normal behaviour. “The Nordic model is an effective counteraction to the sex industry, sexual exploitation and trafficking in human beings” she said.
According to Ms. Morsing, the law was the result of the Swedish government’s action against gender-based violence. She noted that prostitution cannot be a job, it is always exploitation and it is incompatible with internationally accepted human rights principles.
“It has been concluded that prostitution is the violence of men against women, especially against those who are economically or otherwise marginalized. This law comes from the basis of gender equality. Legally, the need to pass this law was justified by the fact that allowing men to buy women’s sex is a manifestation of gender inequality. In doing so, prostitution was acknowledged as one of the many tools used by men to oppress women and girls. In Sweden, it was concluded that it was impossible to combat human trafficking for sexual exploitation without doing anything with prostitution. Thanks to the Nordic model, we have almost no organized crime that deals with trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation,” Ms. Morsing said.
In turn, Yulia Dorokhova, director of the All-Ukrainian NGO “League Legalife”, believes that the official number of people involved in the sex industry in Ukraine is over 100,000, because there are too many people who do not consider themselves prostitutes, however, provide such services. She stressed that people involved in the sex industry were not aware of the benefits of a particular model of combating prostitution. Ms. Dorokhova believes that prostitution is a multigender problem. “It’s not just women and men, it’s transgender people” she said. According to Yulia Dorokhova, the main problem in the sex industry is violence. “The violence comes not only from whom they provide services, but also from the police, the state. People are not provided with medical services. The context of violence is politics of the state, traditions, religion, customs,” she noted.
Lawyer and representative of the women’s initiative Resistanta Olena Zaytseva reported that prostitution was already decriminalized in Ukraine in 2006, and now there is only administrative liability for prostitution and criminal punishment for pimping and human trafficking. Ms. Zaytseva focused attention on international and national legislation, resolutions of the European Parliament and Council of Europe. “Legalizing and decriminalizing prostitution legitimizes brothels and pimping, normalizes prostitution and the purchase of sex, and puts women and girls into higher risk of violence. Instead, the Nordic model aims to assist and rehabilitate women in prostitution, fights demand, and is a tool in the hands of the police to protect women’s rights”. The expert noted that the Council of Europe recommends the Nordic model and the European parliament does not consider decriminalisation of the sex industry a solution to keeping vulnerable women and under-age females safe from violence and exploitation. In addition, according to Ms. Zaytseva Ukraine has international commitments to address the demand in the sex industry but state does not fights demand only works with victims. Ms. Zaytseva added that one of the requirements of Ukraine’s accession to NATO will eventually be acceptance of the zero-tolerance policy regarding trafficking in human beings.
“90% of prostituted people are women. Among prostitution consumers, men make up 99%. To me, as a feminist, it’s about women’s rights,” said Maria Dmytriyeva, the moderator of Feminism UA FB group. “However, It is important to remember that this is a closed area where it is extremely difficult to conduct research”, Ms. Dmytriyeva pointed out. She noted that the average age at which girls are involved into prostitution is 14 years and the average life expectancy of women involved in prostitution is 35 years. The average number of those who have been sexually or physically abused in childhood or adolescence among women involved in prostitution is from 70% to 90%. According to Ms. Dmytriyeva, the Nordic model is more profitable for the economy than the legalization of prostitution. “The experience of those countries where prostitution was legalized shows that the social costs of prostitution are higher than any profits. Rehabilitating women and children who are still rescued from prostitution, increase in crime, treatment of diseases women contract from husbands who went to a brothel and “used” girls without a condom – the total cost for the society with legalized prostitution is far exceeding all potential profits,” the activist said.
Co-founder of YurFem, a well-known human rights activist Larysa Denysenko noted that the level of suicide attempts is highest among people involved in the sex industry. According to her, the most important thing in the topic is the inadmissibility of moral and physical traumatization of people: “We need to tell the state that the matter here is not in taxes, not in the growth of the economy, in the money laundering, not in the fight against corruption. We know what happens when they trade in the forest – it has a lot of impact on the environment. We should think about the impact of trafficking, who are the victims?”
To sign an appeal for support for the introduction of the Nordic model in Ukraine, please visit: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScAVt-ZyjQugBZegSP2HheYFQteHpriZzLFzgW_MxaaJJKsFg/viewform
Information about the Nordic model is here (mostly in Ukrainian): sites.google.com/view/nordicmodelua/
