Human trafficking results in the violation of a large number of articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Open letter – by the Samilia Foundation, Charles-Eric Clesse (former Auditor), Laure Mahieu (lawyer), and Sophie Jekeler (jurist)
This December 10 marks the 76th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims the inalienable rights of every individual.
Even though these rights are threatened all over the world, they remain an ideal to strive for. And for States that call themselves law-based, respecting the fundamental freedoms enshrined in this text is more than ever a responsibility.
Since 2007, the Samilia Foundation, which fights against human trafficking, has expressed concern over domestic legal measures — adopted without genuine democratic debate — that subtly undermine the inalienable rights of individuals.
Since December 1, prostitution in Belgium can now be carried out under an employment contract.
Presented as a major step forward, this law allows sex workers to practice prostitution under an employee contract, under the authority of a pimp now redefined as an “employer,” following the adoption of the reform of the Penal Code on sexual offenses on March 17, 2022.
The argument that this law gives sex workers access to the same social benefits as other professional categories, however laudable it may seem, cannot hide the trap closing in on the vast majority of prostituted persons — the most vulnerable ones, victims of human trafficking who have no access to social protection.
But the law granting employee status to sex workers raises other fundamental questions.
First, the absence of democratic debate, which should have included all grassroots associations — not just the self-proclaimed sex workers’ union, which represents a minority and was the only one to promote this measure.
It is also concerning, given the social significance of this issue, that the evaluation of the legislative framework on prostitution — required under Article 433quater/8 of the law reforming the Criminal Code on sexual offenses — has still not taken place, even though it was due last April, two years after the decriminalization of pimping entered into force.
Moreover, why were other options not considered to grant social rights to sex workers without removing pimping from the Penal Code? In fact, the rights of adult sex workers who operate freely were already protected: prostitution is not a crime; one can run one’s own business; and self-employed status is available. In practice, labor inspections also require that sex workers be declared to social security, giving them access to social protection.
At a time when the question of consent dominates public debate, this text fails to account for a crucial reality: the psychotrauma caused by sexual violence among victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation.. During a recent conference in Brussels organized by the Samilia Foundation, Muriel Salmona demonstrated how, when faced with situations of destruction or imminent danger, the brain triggers an archaic protection mechanism to shield the human body from devastating neurological and cardiovascular damage. The phenomena of shock, dissociation, and traumatic memory disorders help explain the behavior of victims of sexual trafficking — often misunderstood by first responders and magistrates — and for whom the judicial timelines are profoundly inadequate.
Victims are required to decide within 45 days whether to cooperate with the justice system and therefore acknowledge that they are victims of trafficking. Because of traumatic memory disorders, it can take them years to reach that realization.
How, then, can we expect these individuals to report violations of the new sex work employment law?
Above all, this law was designed for the minority of sex workers who operate without any form of coercion.
An estimated 90% of prostituted persons (the vast majority women) are under constraint — financial, from a third party or family back home, out of emotional dependency, or due to addiction.
The tragic situations faced by these vulnerable individuals during the COVID-19 crisis were used as a key argument by the sex workers’ union to push for a law that ultimately benefits only pimps and a very small fraction of sex workers.
If a similar crisis were to happen again, precarious sex workers would once again find themselves in the same distressing circumstances.
The media have circulated the idea that all sex workers now enjoy employee status with corresponding social rights — this is not true.
Only 5% of them — those with residence permits working in establishments managed by compliant operators respecting hygiene, safety, and work standards — would qualify under the law.
In reality, most sex workers are migrants, often in irregular situations; among the others, many prefer to remain discreet and reject this status.
The fundamental question remains: how will this law be effectively enforced?Already, police and labor inspection units responsible for combating human trafficking are under-resourced. Without strict oversight, this reform of the Criminal Code on prostitution could amount to nothing more than a blank check for pimps.
Finally, we express our deep unease over findings from the Samilia Foundation’s pilot project on the prevention of sexual trafficking in secondary schools, which revealed that one in three students has already received paid sexual offers via social media.
What can we say to these young people, when prostitution is now a recognized profession governed by a joint labor committee, and the role of pimp has been legalized as an “employer”?
How can we reconcile such contradictions — which might sound like a Belgian joke, were their consequences not so tragic for victims of human trafficking?
And what should we think of the Belgian State, passing a law without democratic debate that contradicts the very foundations of several major international conventions?
It is, therefore, with deep concern that we mark Human Rights Day this year.
- Muriel Salmona, psychiatrist and author of The Black Book of Sexual Violence
