UN Concerned Italy Discriminating Against Immigrant Women’s Right to Prostitution

LifeSite ^ | January 17, 2005

[NYer]

NEW YORK, January 17, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The United Nations Committee that oversees compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) pressured Italy Tuesday to halt discrimination against immigrant women. The UN committee felt immigrant women in Italy were unfairly restricted from entering into prostitution.

Aldo Mantovani, Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations, presented his country's actions to fight prostitution as a positive development for women in the country. However, as pro-life and pro-family lobbyists have frequently experienced, UN ‘experts’ often have a radically different view of reality that is alien to most humans on the planet.

“The Government’s commitment to fighting discrimination is illustrated by a bill to fight prostitution, which represents the highest level of exploitation of women,” the Italian report says. The bill prohibits prostitution in public places or places open to the public, as that is where the worst cases of criminal sexual exploitation thrive.

However, Ms. Glenda P. Simms, the UN expert from Jamaica, wondered if the prostitution policy did not discriminate against immigrant women’s ability to enter prostitution. “On the issue of prostitution, for example, while prostitution on the street is against the law, it is legal in private homes. Many immigrants do not have private homes. Is that not discrimination based on ethnicity and race in terms of prostitution laws?” she asked.

Ms. Krisztina Morvai, the UN expert representing Hungary, backed up her colleague’s point asking Italy to reconsider its prostitution law, with the view that people won’t always do what they are told. Morvai said she appreciated the vision in Italy’s report of “people as human beings and not as robots” and asked that the legalization of prostitution be seen “through a similar lens”.

To express concerns about the Jamaican UN expert contact the Jamaican Embassy:
1520 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: 202-452-0660
Fax: 202-452-0081
E-mail: info@emjamusa.org

To express concerns about the Hungarian UN expert contact the Hungarian Embassy:
Embassy of Hungary
3910 Shoemaker St., NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel.: (202) 362-6730
office@huembwas.org

[MikefromOhio]

I think they have already proposed that but realized that they would have to tax themselves too....

[Dominick]

That business is very old.
Read the Old Testament.

So is murder, is that legal? Whoops! Yes it is!

Is that also moral, that is, can it ever be legal according to natural law? Conservative philosophy has held that murder in the practice of abortion, euthanasia, and crime should not be permitted.

Prostitution, theft, murder, and false witness are very old, and reviled by the Law in the Old Testament, regardless of the practice of the people in the Bible!

Indeed I read the Old Testament, I ask you then, did you understand it?

[Dominick]

We have less sex crimes than the USA.

Commonly, rape is not a crime about sex. Comparing our cultures and saying that legal prostitution somehow will end rape is serious oversimplification.

Erotic dance in the US is much more prevalent, and is usually tied to crime, many girls find themselves blowing the grand they make a night on cocaine or worse. Is that a profession that you would want your children to participate in? There is legal prostitution in Nevada, but there is no discernible drop in sex crimes in that state.

[Lorianne]

I have to agree with the UN on this one .... but from a different angle. The Italians, rather than criminalizing poor immigrant, should restrict immigration to the country, and criminalize the CLIENTS of prostitutes instead of the prostitutes.

It's the same old story, criminalize only the female part of the problem. It is discrimination pure and simple.

[MHalblaub]

Did you understand my sentences?

Eva, Maria Magdalena, Rahab and Tamar...

I got (Gen. 38, 12-19; Jos. 2, 1-7; 1. Kor. 6, 12-20)
Did you have other sources about prostitution? Just tell me, please. Then we can go on.
(Just for those who didn't get it right.
NO, I don't need some phone numbers! )


What do you think about:
- polygamy
- woman having sex with the brothers of her dead husband
- sex with slaves
- concubinage
- women as property
- marriage for women at 11 years

[Dominick]

Those are all red herrings. Gen 28 8-26 is the whole story where he was obligated by Jewish law and made to obey it by trickery. She wasn't a prostitute., The Story of Joshua was about a harlots house. The Corinthians citation didn't refer to sins Paul refers to elsewhere. Why the red herrings? I made the case that a prostitution was not licit.

Duet 23:18-19 There shall be no temple harlot among the Israelite women, nor a temple prostitute among the Israelite men. You shall not offer a harlot's fee or a dog's price as any kind of votive offering in the house of the LORD, your God; both these things are an abomination to the LORD, your God.
Lev 19:29 "You shall not degrade your daughter by making a prostitute of her; else the land will become corrupt and full of lewdness. "
In any case, the problem of prostitution can't be justified, period. Anyone who has lived around this problem knows what follows prostitution, other crimes, drugs, and ultimate poverty.

None of these acts of people in the Bible make prostitution licit.

[Lorianne]

Notice there is no prohibition on using the services a prostitute. Hypocrisy entrenched in the holy book.

[ThanhPhero]

Why is it that feminists and folks who are so concerned about abuse of women always support the most woman-exploiting , dangerous and harmful condition there is?

[ThanhPhero]

the most woman-exploiting , dangerous and harmful condition there is?

other than being a Moslem woman...

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Is prostitution illegal in Italy? If so, they need only say "piss off" to the UN. Or would that be "fungool"?

[NYer]

Or would that be "fungool"?

Actually, it's "Va f....." but I am too polite to write it here. Then again, there is also the Italian hand signal

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

On the issue of prostitution, for example, while prostitution on the street is against the law, it is legal in private homes. Many immigrants do not have private homes. Is that not discrimination based on ethnicity and race in terms of prostitution laws?”

GOod grief ... if this isn't a twist on logic, I don't know what is.

[MHalblaub]

Thanks for the citations.

Duet[sic] 23:18-19 "There shall be no temple harlot among the Israelite women, nor a temple prostitute among the Israelite men. You shall not offer a harlot's fee or a dog's price as any kind of votive offering in the house of the LORD, your God; both these things are an abomination to the LORD, your God."

What I read here and understand is the Lord is not amused about prostitution in his temple or about money originate from that business. But the law of the Lord did not prohibited prostitution. The Lord made an exception about where it should not take place. The words of the Lord would be much clearer condemning prostitution in common.

I'd like to compare it with parking prohibition near of a fire hydrant. So in your thinking parking is prohibited at all?


Lev 19:29 "You shall not degrade your daughter by making a prostitute of her; else the land will become corrupt and full of lewdness. "

Well, nothing about prostitution in common. Just you as a parent should not force your daughter to prostitution. That is strongly related to the Fifth Commandment.

As summary the bible didn't condemn prostitution. Prostitution shall not take place in church and parents shall not force their daughters to prostitution. In my opinion nobody should force anybody to prostitution.


To the relation of crime and prostitution I have to say that there are prostitutes of both gender selling their bodies in order to buy drugs and not vice versa. Prostitution has the same link to crime as alcohol during prohibition. You should condemn the panderer and not the victims. But punishing the victims will keep them away from complaining against their panderer.


Did you eat pork? This is really not licit according to the bible.

[Dominick]

This is an old thread. If you think somehow that the Church thinks prostitution is legitimate, you are very mistaken.

But punishing the victims will keep them away from complaining against their panderer.

Visiting a prostitute is not only unsanitary, it is stupid. I think a john should be arrested, and it should be a felony with hard time. It shouldn't be tolerated at all. Where did I say differently?

Did you eat pork? This is really not licit according to the bible.

Eating pork is on a par with prostitution? Are you seriously making that argument?

The Bible was compiled to give us a guide to the mind of God, and the inspired text can be manipulated out of context. I can take the quote, "there were giants in the Earth" and tell you that "Jack and the Beanstalk" is true. We have a Church to help us interpret the Bible, and a mind to make sense of things.

Claiming that Prostitution is in alignment with moral Law, as stated in the Bible is not defensible.

[MHalblaub]

The Bible was compiled to give us a guide to the mind of God, and the inspired text can be manipulated out of context.

I don't need a church helping me to interpret the bible. I can read and understand enough on my own that the bible never damn prostitution or prostitutes. If churches tell anything else they are just lying.

We have a Church to help us interpret the Bible, and a mind to make sense of things.

The pork thing is about how selective churches take arguments out of the Book. That is the main reason why Martin Luther translated the bible to the language of the ordinary people. So the catholic church wasn't any longer able to spread their lies to the folk.

Why we don't care about the pork thing? The bible was right about pork at that time. But nowadays we have meat inspection and the trichina problem is solved.

How morally is it to work as a prostitute? I admit their rank is not very high in the US society. But how can these women survive? How many married men go to them and why? They are in my eyes the more immoral ones.

Claiming that Prostitution is in alignment with moral Law, as stated in the Bible is not defensible.

The bible never said anything worse about a man going to a prostitute. Jesus said never anything worse about a prostitute.

[Dominick]

I can read and understand enough on my own that the bible never damn prostitution or prostitutes.

Good luck with that.

That is the main reason why Martin Luther translated the bible to the language of the ordinary people.

Is that what you think? I never saw the Luther translation of the Bible. Your scholarship is showing.

How morally is it to work as a prostitute?

It is very immoral. Besides being unsanitary, one has to engage in contraception and infanticide. Those don't involve the Bible at all, it should be pretty obvious that a man or woman with AIDS and multiple sex partners is going to transmit it to some of them. A night in the sack is not worth dying over.

How many married men go to them and why? They are in my eyes the more immoral ones.

I agreed. and then you spoke out the other side of your mouth:
The bible never said anything worse about a man going to a prostitute. Jesus said never anything worse about a prostitute.

So you said they are more immoral, so a man going to a prostitute is immoral, yet you said the Bible is silent on the topic. By your admission, a patron of a Prostitute is the more immoral one, I agree, by extension, the person who participates in that immorality is also immoral, and that would be, the prostitute.

I posted quotes saying how immoral it is, and how a men and women in the Bible are not allowed to have sex BEFORE marriage, and yet you claim prostitution is somehow allowed by the Bible?

Let me clue you in, to engage in Prostitution you have to have sex which is not licit before Marriage from the Old Testament.

[Swanks]

Here is a solution via Germany's Socialist's view on women's jobs that might fit the bill. And gain the support of UN beaurecrats, at the same time ....

[MHalblaub]

I saw no more cites from the bible on your last reply. No more cites about the prohibition and damnation of prostitution? So prostitution is just immoral from todays point of view?


I never saw the Luther translation of the Bible.

Martin Luther, not Martin Luther King.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/

And now let me see your sites about no sex before marriage for both gender.