Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1345126
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 FEBRUARY 2021 INTERVIEW Let's empower women, not pimps Empower has just released a statement, complaining that the proposed decriminalising of prostitution "will have ad- verse effects to the already vulnerable women that are caught in this industry". Yet on paper, the same reform aims to do the opposite: i.e., to pro- tect women in prostitution, by giving them agency over their own profession. In what way, exactly, is this reform flawed? First of all, let me explain what Empower is all about. Empower is a platform for nearly all the major female NGOs in Malta. What I do, as chair, it to try and bring all the diverse NGOs together: espe- cially on all the subjects that we agree on. The prostitution re- form is one of them… but it is very far from the only one. We also discuss the need for more women on boards, and in de- cision-taking positions; more women in Parliament; domestic violence; and so on. Each NGO, however, has its own specialty that it focuses on. In the case of prostitution, for instance: if you really want more details from a legal angle, you have to go to Anna Borg (former chair of the Malta Con- federation of Women's Organ- isations); if you need to know what is happening at street-lev- el – how the situation impacts young girls, for instance – you go to Karen Buttigieg of the Malta Girl Guides; and so on. The idea behind Empower was to bring all this expertise togeth- er under one umbrella. It was the brainchild of HE President Emeritus Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca; because she felt that the NGOs were all working indi- vidually, on their own, without backing each other up… even on issues where we all agreed. She argued that there was need for a common platform, so that all these diverse NGOs would be able to network with, and support, each other. And this is, in fact, what we are now doing. Coming back to your ques- tion, however. One of the big- gest problems of the proposed prostitution reform, is that it simply disregarded all the ad- vice and recommendations of all the NGOs concerned… not just Empower, by the way: be- cause this is one aspect a lot of the media got wrong. Empower is only one of the 46 organisations involved in the discussion. The others include NGOs and various experts in the field: the ones who actually meet these girls, and others who are caught up in prostitution – including the children, by the way. Because nobody ever talks about how the issue affects chil- dren: the sometimes shocking stories we hear of the situations they have to face; or how they often get drawn into it, through no real choice of their own. These are among the realities that some of these 46+ expert organisations face on a daily basis. And all of them – with all their hands-on knowledge of the situation on the ground - have got together to say that 'this is not the way forward'… In fact, your statement also complained about the lack of consultation before launching the reform… For accuracy's sake, I wouldn't say 'lack of consultation'. The reality is that we did attend numerous consultation meet- ings with (former Parliamen- tary Secretary for Civil Rights) Rosianne Cutajar; and all the experts, from all those organi- sations, all said the same thing. But then, the ministry's pro- posals not only overlooked all our recommendations; but also aim in the very opposite direc- tion. So it is extremely mislead- ing to state that the women's organisations were 'put at the centre of this reform' – only to completely ignore the experi- enced advice which they gave in all those consultation meetings. But it also raises the question of who they did listen to, before coming out with these propos- als. For someone is pushing this reform. Who are these people? How many are there? What is their expertise in this issue, and how does it compare Women's organisations are united in their opposition to the proposed decriminalisation of prostitution. STEPHANIE FALZON, chair of Empower – a platform for women's NGOs – argues that legislation should exist to protect the vulnerable, instead of rewarding criminality PHOTO: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTATODAY Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt