Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 - Seanad Éireann, Sen. Ivana Bacik's contribution at Second Stage. (YouTube link and transcript)
08 October 2015
Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 - Seanad Éireann
Sen. Ivana Bacik's contribution at Second Stage.
On Tuesday 6th October 2015 I welcomed the Immigrant Council of Ireland to Leinster House to give a briefing to members on prostitution law ahead of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015 which was debated later that evening in the Seanad. Many thanks to the ICI for that great and informative presentation.
I'd like to pay tribute to the Immigrant Council of Ireland and other organisations such as the Dublin Rape Crisis Network, Ruhama, INMO and ICTU who have been working and campaiging on the many issues involved and in particular addressing sexual exploitation, especially that of children and those engaged in prostitution. The 'Turn Off The Red Light' campaign has been an important tool for creating awareness and action. I am particularly proud of the role the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality has played, to which the Minister paid tribute, in formulating some of the policy basis for the changes proposed in the Bill.
Read below the transcript or watch the Youtube video of my contribution to the debate and follow the Oireachtas web link for the full transcript.
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015: Order for Second Stage
Bill entitled an Act to give effect to Directive No. 2011/93EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA, for that purpose to amend certain enactments; to amend the Punishment of Incest Act 1908; to amend the Criminal Evidence Act 1992; to repeal the Criminal Law (Incest Proceedings) Act 1995; to amend the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006; to provide for offences relating to payment for sexual activity with prostitutes, offensive conduct of a sexual nature and harassment of victims of sexual offences and to provide for related matters.
Senator Ivana Bacik: I move: "That the Second Stage be taken now."
Question put and agreed to.
Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015: Second Stage
Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
Senator David Norris: Without adequate consultation-----
Senator Ivana Bacik: There were 800 submissions.
Senator Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Minister and her officials to the House and welcome all those in the Gallery who have played such a strong role in helping to form the shape of and influence this Bill for the good, namely, the Immigrant Council of Ireland, Ruhama, ICTU, the INMO and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in particular. As the Minister said, it is a genuinely reforming Bill which brings in substantive and significant changes to our law on sexual offences. If there is one overarching theme, it is that it is a Bill which addresses sexual exploitation, in particular of children and those engaged in prostitution. I am particularly proud of the role the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality has played, to which the Minister paid tribute, in formulating some of the policy basis for the changes proposed in the Bill. I take strong issue with some of the comments by Senator Mary White on the changes in Part 3 of the Bill relating to prostitution and I will speak on those in a moment. I absolutely agree with all Senator Zappone said on Part 3 of the Bill, in particular relating to sections 20 and 21 on the changes in prostitution law.
Two aspects of the Bill are particularly welcome. Part 2 deals with sexual exploitation of children, which Senator Noone has dealt with in detail. I wholeheartedly welcome the changes here, particularly those in sections 16 and 17 that change the 2006 Act in respect of the defence of mistake and in respect of consensual underage peer relationships. These are sensible changes that will greatly enhance protections in our law for children.
Part 5 of the Bill deals with provisions for criminal evidence. I welcome a couple of changes there, in particular section 33 which deals with disclosure of third party records in sex offence trials. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has worked very hard on this. Senator van Turnhout introduced amendments on this issue in 2013 which I supported and the Minister deserves our thanks for bringing in these careful provisions. I know from colleagues in practice what a huge issue the disclosure of records, particularly counselling records, has been in sex offence trials. It will be helpful for practitioners, judges and, most of all, complainants to see the clear criteria set out for decision making on the question of disclosure.
I also welcome section 30, a provision granting protection against personal cross-examination by the accused in sex offence trials where a witness is under 18 and under 14, for which there are different provisions. We are carrying out research in Trinity College on the real trauma that can be caused to complainants where a defendant chooses to cross-examine in person and currently there is no restriction on that in Irish law but this Bill will change that. It has been a huge and high profile issue in other jurisdictions and I am glad to see we are taking pre-emptive action. I suggest we consider extending this, perhaps in a more limited form, to adult complainants. This has been done in other jurisdictions to some positive effect.
Part 3 has been addressed in detail by others but I agree with and strongly support the new provisions in sections 20 and 21 concerning purchase of sexual services. Those who have commented on this should know that these changes are supported by a wide range of organisations, including the Immigrant Council of Ireland, the National Women's Council, Ruhama and the Turn Off the Red Light campaign. The change is only being introduced, as Senator Katherine Zappone said, following careful consultations and, in particular-----
Senator David Norris: It is the argument of one side.
Senator Ivana Bacik: -----the long consultations carried out at the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. Like Senator Katherine Zappone, I was proud to be part of that and part of the small group which travelled to Sweden and heard direct evidence from those engaged in front-line implementation of the Swedish approach there. Our committee received 800 written submissions. We heard from 26 individuals and representatives of groups through public hearings. Senators may be interested to know that, through hearings, we heard from those for and against the Swedish approach. We heard from those engaged in prostitution both for and against the Swedish approach. I ask colleagues to look at the evidence basis of our recommendations and our report which is careful and well-worded and sets out how persuasive we found the evidence on the reduction of demand for prostitution in Sweden since the introduction of the prohibition on buying sex there in 1999. We noted that 80% of the submissions to us favoured the Swedish approach, that these were drawn from a broad cross-section of civil society, including, trade unions, frontline medical workers, service providers and those working with migrants, in particular.
We also found, again on evidence we heard, that prostitution is widely available across Ireland. It is highly organised, highly profitable, highly exploitative and largely controlled by organised crime interests. We heard that women enter prostitution in Ireland at a young age, many under 18, many are trafficked into prostitution and the vast majority are subject to control by a third party or pimped.
Even those witnesses who told us that they had entered prostitution freely and who argued against the Swedish approach said they represented, at most, 15% to 20% of those engaged in prostitution. Clearly, there is a huge level of coercion and exploitation taking place on a daily basis across Ireland in the actual reality of prostitution and yet I know, as a former practising lawyer, how flawed our current Irish model for regulating prostitution is based on public order and on prohibiting the visible manifestation of prostitution through criminalising loitering and soliciting.
I welcome the Minister's undertaking that she will bring forward amendments in this House to further decriminalise those women and men involved in selling sex and prostitution by removing those who offer sexual services from the existing offences of solicitation and loitering. We did not address this directly in the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality report but we asked the Minister to make those amendments to the legislation. We found ultimately that the focus of our current law on regulating supply and on targeting those engaged in selling sex, because those convicted of prostitution-related offences are overwhelmingly women and overwhelmingly those selling sex, was flawed and ineffective and we argued instead that we should adopt, as we are going to do in this legislation, a different approach which targets demand and criminalises only the purchase and not the sale of sex, similar to that introduced not only in Sweden but in other jurisdictions, including Norway, Iceland, Canada and, very recently, our neighbouring jurisdiction of Northern Ireland. There are real and valid concerns that if we do not adopt a similar law, we may become a safe haven for traffickers moving women South. We know the immense levels of exploitation here in the sex industry and we know who extensive it is.
The approach we are seeking to adopt in sections 20 and 21 is a sensible alternative one. We also found from our studies in Sweden and in our research that the Swedish law is part of a multi-policy initiative; it is not just a penal law approach. The Swedish authorities have also introduced harm reduction measures, initiatives to support those exiting from prostitution and, generally, they have adopted a holistic approach to tackling prostitution.
Senator David Norris: They have not. They do not distribute condoms.
Senator Ivana Bacik: That is what we recommended in our report should be undertaken here.
I strongly welcome this initiative. May I quote Monica O'Connor, who gave an excellent briefing, along with Nusha Yonkova, earlier to colleagues on the changes? The idea of free choice in prostitution is a misnomer. For anyone who has investigated and looked at the evidence, we know that prostitution in Ireland, as elsewhere, is about exploitation and commodification, in particular, of women but of those selling sex generally. We know the approach adopted in Sweden has had a strongly positive normative effect on social attitudes to sexuality and to equality. We seek to introduce a meritorious set of amendments.
I strongly support the Bill and look forward to raising issues, in particular issues around section 39 and around the definition of "consent" which I have raised previously with the Minister's officials. I hope the Minister might consider accepting amendments on section 39, in terms of vagueness of language on the indecency offence, and the definition of "consent" in sex offences, which has been raised with her by the Rape Crisis Centre and the Rape Crisis Network.
#TurnOffTheRedLight