[Brussels, 21 June 2012] The Bulgarian Women’s Lobby (BWL) and the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), the largest coalition of women’s NGOs in Europe, will on 13 July host a European conference on “Trafficking in women and prostitution: Bulgarian and European perspectives”.
The conference is foreseen as a concrete political and awareness raising event for the two women’s organisations and will give a key opportunity for Bulgarian stakeholders, politicians, professionals and NGOs, to get in-depth knowledge on the issue of trafficking in women and prostitution, both at Bulgarian and European level, and discuss possible ways forward, based on the experience developed in other EU countries.
EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator Myria Vassiliadou will be a keynote speaker of the conference. The recently unveiled EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings (2012-2016) acknowledges the gender nature of trafficking and that trafficking is rooted in inequality between women and men and violence against women. Indeed, data collected by the EC in September 2011 confirms statistics gathered by the UN: three quarters of registered victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation, and women and girls are the main victims of trafficking in human beings.
The Bulgarian Women’s Lobby and the European Women’s Lobby hold that prostitution is a form of violence against women which hinders the realisation of equality between women and men, and that the EU and its Member States should develop comprehensive strategies on ending violence against women and prostitution. ‘It is not surprising that the lack of EU and national policies against violence against women has led to an increase in procuring and fuels trafficking in women into Europe for sexual purposes and sex tourism’, explains Iliana Balabanova-Stoicheva, President of the Bulgarian Women’s Lobby and EWL Board member. ‘In order to ambitiously tackle trafficking in women for sexual purposes, the EU and its Member States, including Bulgaria, must uppermost tackle the demand side of the phenomenon through awareness raising, education to equality and effective sanctions to prostitute-users and procurers.’
High-level governmental speakers from the ministries of Justice and Interior will present the Bulgarian policy and actions to tackle prostitution and trafficking in Bulgaria. They will also get an opportunity to learn more about developments in other EU countries, namely Sweden and France, where prostitution and trafficking in women are considered violence against women. Bulgarian Members of the European Parliament have also been invited to present their views and expectations from their country and the EU in order to put an end to this pervasive violation of women’s human rights.
The EWL campaign ‘Together for a Europe free from prostitution’, which benefit from the support of 33 Members of the European Parliament, will be presented during the event. The conference will end with a visual event where participants will be invited to hold up EWL post card ‘Be a Sport. Keep it Fair... Say NO to Prostitution’, a concrete commitment to not tolerate prostitution whatever the context, including at sporting events, two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in London.
For further information, please contact:
At the European Women’s Lobby: Ms Leanda Barrington-Leach, EWL Communications and Media Officer, Tel: (32) 02.210.04.27 or (+32) 488 41 94 21,
At the Bulgarian Women’s Lobby: Ms Iliana Balabanova-Stoicheva, President of the Bulgarian Women’s Lobby,
Note to editors:
The European Women's Lobby (EWL) is the largest umbrella organisation of women's associations in the European Union (EU), working to promote women's rights and equality between women and men. EWL membership extends to organisations in all 27 EU Member States and three candidate countries, as well as to 21 European-wide organisations, representing a total of more than 2000 associations.
The Bulgarian Women’s Lobby (BWL) is the largest umbrella organisation of women’s associations in Bulgaria, and the national coordination of the EWL in Bulgaria, working to promote women's rights and equality between women and men.