Legalise Prostitution

The murder of 5 women in Ipswich and mass media coverage has focussed public attention on the confluence of addiction to heroin and crack amongst people called sex workers. Such that John Mann Labour MP for Bassetlaw asked Meg Munn the The Minister for Wimmin & Equality this afternoon ..." What estimate the Government have made of the percentage of women involved in the sex industry who are addicted to class A drugs. "

She replied that a 2004 Home Office study profiled 228 women involved in street-based prostitution and found that 87 % "used "heroin and 64 % "used" crack cocaine. Subsequent anecdotal evidence she said suggests that —in many areas, practically all of those involved in street prostitution used class A drugs.

To which John Mann riposted that the provision by the NHS of effective drug treatment is a key intervention in relation to prostitution, especially street prostitution and Meg Munn agreed claiming ;

1. The Government had introduced a co-ordinated prostitution strategy
2. Recognised that providing appropriate drug treatment was essential and had "invested" £600 Mn in drug treatment provision in the recent past.

Dr Brian Iddon , Labour MP for Bolton, South-East revealed that Wigan and Bolton health authority carried out a survey in recent years, of the "sex industry", which showed that 98 % of the women on-street were addicted to heroin. In contrast few of the women off-street were addicted to any drug at all.

Lorely Burt the deliciously named Liberal Democrat who represents, Solihull , the classier end of Birmingham, spared the sights of streetwalkers, felt that the Gubment's Strategy was merely a watered down change of rules allowing girls to work in pairs from an address, a crackdown on kerb crawlers and help on adiction to class A drugs and called for legalisation. This last brought the preposterous Mr. Denis MacShane scattering aside conventional wisdom (and detailed evidence) about pimps, white slave traffickers, drug dealers, addicts, sex slaves UN treaties, EU conventions and blamed the men. The Liberal Deocratic idea of legalising prostitution was ludicrous. He sat down.

Michael D E Goodyear and Linda Cusick published an Editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2007; 334: 52-53 12th January - subscription only) Protection of sex workers

A full text of their arguments for legalisation can be found as a Word Document
Remembering Ipswich: a plea for human rights.

A must read analysis, succinct, precise and concise arguments - complete with 124 footnotes and many, many contemporary articles and links - for example the final Note 124 is Matthew Parris. We could have protected the Ipswich women. We failed. The Times December 16 2006.

Another which ecapsulates the dreadful conseqences of life as a "sex worker" is ;

What happens to women who sell sex? Report of a unique occupational cohort.
By H Ward and S Day Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK. h.ward@imperial.ac.uk

BACKGROUND/ OBJECTIVES: Sex work has been seen as both a health and a social problem. However, there is a paucity of evidence on the longer term impact on health. We explored the health and career paths over a period of 15 years among women who have worked in the sex industry. DESIGN: A longitudinal study of sex workers recruited between 1986 and 1993 and followed for 15 years. Outcome data were obtained through interview, clinic records, or third parties. SETTING: Clinic and community settings in London. PARTICIPANTS: We obtained outcome data on 130 (37%) of the original cohort of 354 women, with a combined follow up of 1247 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Vital status, most recent occupation, duration of sex work, sexually transmitted infections (STI), major health problems. RESULTS: The majority (73/124, 59%) were still in the sex industry and had sold sex for a mean of 13.6 years (!). There were six deaths, a mortality of 4.8 per 1000 person years. Surviving women had a high cumulative risk (110 of 118, 93%) of STI. Past gonorrhoea was associated with pelvic inflammatory disease (RR 2.28, 95% CI 1.12 to 4.66) and infertility (RR 10.9, 95% CI 1.5 to 77.3). Other outcomes included mental health problems (38 of 97, 40%) and addiction (46 of 72, 64%). There were no significant differences in health outcomes between women who were still in the sex industry and those who had stopped. There was a high level of occupational mobility, and 31 women (of 84, 37%) had completed vocational or higher education, including eight to postgraduate level. CONCLUSIONS: Sex work is associated with excess mortality and morbidity including the sequelae of STI, mental health problems, and substance abuse.

Goodyear and Cusick place the Ipswich murders in context ;

"Several other women have been murdered in the area over a 15 year period, and the number of murdered sex workers around the world continues to grow. Standardised mortality rates for sex workers are six times that of the general population (eighteen for homicide ), the highest for any group of women anywhere, with an estimated murder every two months in Britain. Premature death forms only part of the spectrum of violence and abuse experienced daily, with a high burden of physical and emotional morbidity. , Violence against sex workers is endemic, historical , , , and part of a much broader problem of violence against women. Commentators have angrily pointed out the contrast between the scant attention paid to the regular murder of women compared to a sudden concern that a “serial killer” is involved, when the issue suddenly becomes a matter of public safety. "(This paragraph has 22 references)

They go on to argue strongly for a solution or at least a Remedy ;

"To maintain the status quo is both unacceptable and moral cowardice. The Prime Minister has opposed legislative reform, and attempted to stall the rising clamour for the protection of women, but must now demonstrate leadership to restore dignity, justice and human rights by eliminating prostitution as a crime. In doing so he has a number of lessons from history to guide him. In 1883, Gladstone acceded to public pressure, and suspended the Contagious Diseases Acts following a majority vote in the house. In 2003 Helen Clark, New Zealand’s Labour Prime Minister, emphasised that her actions in supporting decriminalisation was not related to sexual morality, but to a duty to place the welfare of the vulnerable and marginalised first. A similar position was taken by the Green Party"

He finishes by reference to the Ipswich victims ;

Gemma, Tania, Anneli, Paula and Annette were some mother’s daughters, and some childrens’ mothers. Their deaths were inevitable. (*)They deserved better, but we failed them., We will honour them best, not just by memorials, but by doing the right thing.

(*)The deadly effect of zero tolerance --Attempts to stamp out the sex trade will drive it underground and put women's lives at risk

Diane Taylor Wednesday January 18, 2006 The Guradian

Whatever your views on the Legalisation of prostitution, un the UK or anywhere you should read these arguments.

Saddam, Tikriti, Bandar hung - Amazing pictures - video

You have been misled by Google - this posting relates to the execution of Sadam and included the (we subsequetly discovered) erroneous information that he was lynched with Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar .

However if you want to see the gory removal of Tikriti's head and have a purely prurient interest in his beheading go here. If you want to see Saddam when he is dead revealing his injuries etc., go here

This is the original post :-

Curtis Doebbler, An American attorney (one of two on Saddam Hussein's Dujail trial team), has condemned Saddam Hussein's execution minutes after his client was hanged in Baghdad at dawn....Saddam's half-brother and former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti and former head of the Iraqi revolutionary court Awad Hamed al-Bandar - were also executed, Saddam first, then Tikriti and finally Bandar. Video here Warning tough stuff!!


"The execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is an unfortunate display of arrogant aggressor's injustice by the United States of America under the leadership of American President George W. Bush. It sets back achievements in international criminal law many decades and sends a clear message to people all over the world that the United States' aggression cannot be stopped by the law. It is truly a sad day for international justice and sad beginning to a new year.

One cannot imagine a greater inspiration to violence against America and her allies than the action taken this morning. The way that the former Iraqi President, and now brave martyr, stood up to the most powerful, deadly and lawless army in the world almost single-handedly for more than a decade will undoubtedly contirbute, as an inspiration, to violence against American interests all over the world.

One can only hope that a new year will bring the prosecution of those who have perpetrated this violation of international law starting with the American President and his governmental allies to the American jurists and their colleagues who willingly worked to ensure an unfair trial and an extrajudicial and summary execution. One can also not but hope that those who pursue these individuals will not use the same illegal means to bring them to justice that they have encouraged by their example, but rather that the law will be used to bring them to justice and restore the integrity of the law that has been lost by this illegal action.

My heart felt sympathies go out to the family of the President and all the Iraqi people who suffer yet another injustice at the hands of American aggressors."

During the Trial 3 lawyers were killed ;

Lawyer, Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi was abducted 20th October 2005, the day after the trial commenced by 10 masked gunmen wearing Iraqi Police and his dead body was found in the street near Baghdad's Fardous Mosque Diaa al-Saadi.

Lawyer Adel al-Zubeidi, was shot dead Nov 8th 2005 a colleague Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie, also in the car was injured. It was claimed the killers arrived at the scene in a Government car.(Pic of accident scene)

On 20th June this year lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi's (married with 6 children) body (see pic) was found dumped in Baghdad, hours after he was abducted from his home. This precipitated a hunger strike by Saddam Hussein and a call to the UN by the defence for the trial to be moved.

You can read what President Bush said today here..."Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial ...." blah blah blah

Rumsfeld et. al. case lodged in Germany

The New York-based civil rights group Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), filed a criminal complaint against ex Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday at the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The previous attempt to bring Rumsfeld and others to justice in 2004 under the Criminal Code of Crimes Against International Law (CCIL) was dropped in February 2005 on the eve of a visit by Rumsfeld to Germany for the Munich Conference on Security Policy. Kay Nehm, then the federal prosecutor claimed that Rumsfeld could be prosecuted in his own country and said.." that there were no indications that the US authorities and courts of the United States of America are refraining, or would refrain,from penal measures as regards the violations described in the complaint.” In 4 years Nehm did not take up a single case under the CCIL.

This new charge sheet has a greater chance of suceeding claims Berlin attorney Wolfgang Kaleck because ;

1. Rumsfeld is no longer able to hide behind his role as an employee of a sovereign power.
2.Monika Harms, who took office earlier this year as the federal prosecutor, may be more amenable to their cause.
3. New evidence such as documents from the 2005 Congressional hearings on the al-Qahtani case and the role of various people in producing the "torture memos".
4. Janis Karpinski the former commander of Abu Ghraib, will appear as a witness.
5. A different and much changed political situation.

CCR President Michael Ratner said on launching this action

“The recently passed Military Commissions Act, which purports to amnesty the alleged war crimes of U.S. officials, is only the most recent illustration of American unwillingness to prosecute Americans. These crimes are not the work of ‘a few bad apples;’ they were planned and executed at the highest levels of the U.S. government.”

In the original action Hannes Honecker, an attorney for the Republican Attorneys' Association (RAV) in Berlin, which represents CCR in Germany said his group agreed to help with CCR's case because it shared the organization's fundamental belief that serious crimes had been committed at Abu Ghraib.

"I fear that the rule of law will perish if we don't further pursue this and that Abu Ghraib will at some point take on significance in our cultural history -- namely that people don't give a damn about law as long as they are in power. This situation is undemocratic, it disregards human rights, it's intolerable and I'm afraid it will become standard if we do not take legal action against it."

.Janis Karpinski who toured the US with Craig Murray earlier this year , resigned from the army in July 2005. She is anxious to reveal the incidents that ended her army career. "I served for 28 years," Karpinski told the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel. "I was entirely committed to the army. Then they make me into a scapegoat."

The case cannot be brought (like the Yugoslav defendents) to the International Criminal Court in The Hague because the US is not a member and will not recognise it. The UN route would be immediately subject to (at least) the US power of veto.

These documents are available (PDF alerts)
1. Introduction in English which makes compelling reading 14 pages

2/3 The Full complaint in German only (so far) 2 parts Part 1 784K Part 2 659K

4. Press Release from Wofgang Kaleck's office (German) - wonderful logo / theme

5. Joint Press release CCC/RAV/ etc.,

It is essential that as much publicity is afforded world wide to this case - please help by circulating, posting, linking information wherever and whenever possible. The next step is Bush and Balir up on war crimes charges.