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The Programme for the Prevention of
Prostitution
and Violence against Women 1998 - 2002
Why
do we speak of violence against women?
Violence
against women is a human rights violation. It presents
an obstacle to equality, development and peace. The use of
violence is a crime, for which the perpetrator is always
accountable.
Anybody
can become victim of gender-based violence. Victims can be
found among women with a wide range of backgrounds in terms of
age, education or ethnic group. They comprise girls, young
women, adults, middle-aged and elderly women.
Violence
against women is a manifestation of the unequal power
relations between men and women, deriving from cultural
patterns and exacerbated by social pressures. It is about
abuse of power and control.
Spousal
and non-spousal abuse is the most common form of violence
agaist women. In three out of four cases, the perpetrator is
the victim's present of previous partner, boyfriend or spouse.
Therefore, when it comes to 'family violence' it is pertinent
to speak of men's violence against women.
Violence
means all actions whose goal is to harm, intimidate, harass or
humiliate. It involves control over another person's
behaviour, thoughts, emotions and private space. Violent
behaviour aims at wielding power in another person's life by
causing fear.
Violence
against women has many manifestations. It may be physical,
mental, sexual, property-related or economic abuse or threat
thereof. Another form of violence is using children as tools
for control and extortion.
Sexual
violence entails damage and abuse of power; it is not a result
of a dynamic sex drive. Sexual violence may occur in families,
relationships and outside home, or it may be condoned and
perpetrated by a state, e.g. during an armed conflict. It
manifests itself in sexual harassment, rape, sexual abuse of a
child and incest, female genital mutilation, prostitution and
trafficking in women.
Promotion
of equality and human rights as a starting point
In its
Plan of Action for the Promotion of Gender Equality in 1997,
the Finnish government pledged to promote equality between the
sexes in Finland. On this occasion, the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health launched the Programme for the Prevention
of Prostitution and Violence against Women, chaired by the
Minister of Social Services. This endeavour consists of two
sister projects, the Project
for the Prevention of Violence against Women and the Project
for Prevention of Prostitution, implemented at the
National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and
Health (STAKES).
Women's
rights are human rights
ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION:
Project
Manager Leena Ruusuvuori
e-mail: leenar@stakes.fi
Project
Manager Marjut Jyrkinen
e-mail: marjut.jyrkinen@stakes.fi
National
Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health
(STAKES)
P.O.Box 220
00531 Helsinki
FINLAND
Fax +358 9 3967 2201
Tel +358 9 39 671
Project for the Prevention of Violence
against Women 1998-2002
In accordance with the commitments made in the Fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing 1995 The Council of State approved in February 1997 the plan
for action for the promotion of gender equality "From Beijing to
Finland" of the Finnish Government. Under this programme the Ministry of
Social Affairs and Health is to launch two national projects, one for the
prevention of violence against women and the other one for the prevention of
prostitution. The projects have begun in early 1998 and will last for five
years.
The objectives of the project on violence against women are e.g. to
strengthen attitudes opposed to violence, to make violence visible and to make
the public aware of its extent and impact on the society, to reduce the
incidence of violence, and to ensure that easily accessible services are
available for the victims and the perpetrators.
In order to achieve its objective the project will be
As the first measure 12 regional multiprofessional teams have been set up in
different parts of Finland to plan and coordinate work in their own areas. A
media campaign together with the city of Helsinki is launched in October, the
national campaign will follow at a later date.
The project has five sub-committees on different themes: training and
education material, developing services, media and information, research and
follow-up, and legislative and crminal justice measures. One of the first tasks
of these task forces is to produce teaching material and other literature.
The project is being managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and
carried out by the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and
Health (STAKES).
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Prevention of Prostitution 1998 - 2002
The sex industry is a rapidly expanding international operation which is
based on and perpetuated by prevailing unequal socially and culturally defined
gender and power relations. The markets of the commercial sex trade have a
tendency to actively create new consumption habits. The sex trade uses
advertising and marketing in order to normalize the consumption of its offered
products and services as an unquestioned part of ordinary life. Prostitution is
one part of this consumption culture of eroticized trade in human beings.
The sex industry exists by means of trading in the bodies and sexualities of
human beings. The sex trade is not only an economic venture which just happens
to have negative implications for health: It is an activity that raises profound
concerns about human rights and ethics.
From Beijing to Helsinki
The declaration of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing emphasizes
the responsibility of states and international organizations to eliminate
trafficking in women. The strategic goal of the Beijing Platform for Action is
to stop trafficking in women, to support its victims, and to halt the violence
related to prostitution and the trade of women. The Government of Finland
launched its program for equality between women and men, "From Beijing to
Helsinki", in 1997. This national program fulfils the obligations set in
the Beijing Platform for Action.
The questions related to prostitution have notably gained prominence on the
international agenda during the last decade. Due to the geopolitical location of
Finland as a border country of the European Union, prostitution has aroused
great concern in the other Scandinavian countries and in the E.U. Finland is a
country of origin of sex tourists who increasingly head for Baltic and Russian
destinations. Finland is also a transit country and a country of destination of
mobile prostitution. A crucial point is that the sex trade is increasing not in
only terms of foreign prostitution and sex tourism, but that also domestic
prostitution is growing in Finland.
The project
In compliance with the obligations set by the United Nations, the Ministry of
Social Affairs and Health started in 1998 a five-year long national Program for
the Prevention of Prostitution and Violence against Women (1998 - 2002). The
program is chaired by the Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Mr. Osmo
Soininvaara.
The program is put into practice at STAKES (National Research and Development
Centre for Welfare and Health), where questions concerning prostitution and the
sex trade have been dealt with already through the work of the National Expert
Group on Prostitution (1994 - 1996).
The administrative group on the Prevention of Prostitution is chaired by
Senior Medical Officer Merja-Maaria Turunen. The administrative group consists
of representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Ministry
of the Interior, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the
National Public Health Institute, the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, the
Helsinki Police Department, the Social Services Department of the City of
Helsinki, and the Prostitute Counselling Centre of Helsinki.
The goals and tasks
The project gathers and disseminates information and follows up on
prostitution and different forms of commercialized sex at the international and
national levels. The sex trade is a polymorphic continuously evolving
phenomenon. The themes related to it are relatively difficult and sensitive to
approach. At the national level, there is a lack of collected and reliably
analyzed information on the phenomenon. For these reasons, the key task of the
project is to promote research both in applied and theoretical areas.
In most considerations of the sex trade, the focus has been limited to women
selling sex. In order to broaden the understanding of prostitution and to
eliminate the violations of human rights connected to the sex trade, the social
and cultural patterns and structures behind it are being subjected to
investigation in the project. The project draws attention to other initial
partners in the sex trade who maintain it and benefit financially from it.
Clients, procurers, and indirect profiteers are in focus under the project.
A further task of the project is to produce different kinds of operative
models in order to create a basis for social decision-making and to promote
cooperation with authorities and NGOs in striving to prevent prostitution and to
reduce the disadvantages connected to the phenomenon. Promotion of equal,
positive, and nonviolating modes of sexuality is a main goal of the project.
Action plan for 1998 and 1999
-
Development of cooperation between Finland, and the Baltic countries, and
Russia about issues concerning prostitution and the sex trade in general:
-
Research plan on mobile prostitution coming into Finland from the
East, and on sex tourism from Finland directed at Russia and the Baltic
states.
-
Partnership in the Finnish-based STOP project financed partly by the
E.U. The STOP project focuses on monitoring, analyzing, and combating
trafficking in women and children. An essential aim of the project is to
develop cooperation between authorities in Finland, Estonia, Russia,
Sweden, and Germany.
-
Research on the economical gains of the Finnish daily newspapers from the
advertising of the sex trade.
-
Formation of a working-group concerning clients of prostitution.
-
Publications in 1998: Research publication on Finnish male prostitution
(in Finnish) and a publication on the clients of prostitution (including
writers from other Nordic countries ; in English).
For further information:
Prevention of Prostitution 1998 - 2002
STAKES - NATIONAL RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT CENTRE FOR WELFARE AND HEALTH
P.O. Box 220, FIN-00531 Helsinki, Finland
Telefax +358 9 3967 2201
Project Manager Marjut Jyrkinen
phone +358 9 3967 2175
e-mail: marjut.jyrkinen@stakes.fi
Project Planning Officer Leena Karjalainen
phone +358 9 3967 2183
e-mail:leena.karjalainen@stakes.fi
Researcher Mari-Elina Laukkanen
phone +358 9 3967 2174
e-mail: mari-elina.laukkanen@stakes.fi
Project Researcher Reet Nurmi
phone +358 9 3967 2181
e-mail: reet.nurmi@stakes.fi
(Information also in Russian and Estonian)
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