Powerful call for the abolition of prostitution in Spain from 9 survivors

Rosen Hicher is a leading figure of the Abolitionist movement in France and played a key role in the adoption of the Abolitionist law in the country. She uses her voice as a survivor of prostitution and an activist and wrote the book Testimony of a Prostitute. In 2014, she walked 743 kilometres across France in 2014 to raise awareness on the urgency to adopt the Abolitionist law in France.

As a leader and activist, Claudia Quintero Rolon has been working for more than ten years to defend the rights of women and victims of human trafficking in Colombia and is the manager of the Empodérame Foundation. In 2022 she was elected Cafam Woman, among 29 candidates, for her work fighting against sexual violence.

"It is not about ideology, but about the value we give to women", she explained at the press conference. In the afternoon, when asked a question posed by panel moderator Marta Torres, "Why do you think it is important to support an abolitionist law in Spain?", Claudia Quintero spoke of prostituted women in Spain, Romanian women, Venezuelan women, Colombian women and women from other impoverished countries, for whom "the oldest male privilege is still in force". "Centuries ago, our grandmothers were also exploited by Spanish men," she recalled.

Ally-Marie Diamond is the founder of the organisation Wahine Toa Rising, which supports women and children exploited in prostitution in Aoteraroa - the Maori name for her country. She is a survivor of prostitution of Pacific Maori-Islander origin.

For Diamond, in her country - where the regulatory (legalisation) model is implemented- "we see the suffering of women and NN children in prostitution, and I would not like to see it in other EDT countries”. In her own experience, she explained how in the brothel where she was prostitute "there was an emergency button and when you pressed it nobody came."

Writer and feminist well known in Spain, Amelia Tiganus is a leading figure of the Abolitionist Movement in the Basque Country, and founder of Emargi, an association for a future free of sexual and reproductive exploitation. Survivor of prostitution, she has been coordinator of the Feminicidio.net training platform and is co-founder of the International Abolitionist School.

She also recalled the situation of thousands of her compatriots, young women sexually exploited in Spain: "it hurts me deeply for my country, Romania, and when I do activism here I know I am fighting for them". For Amelia Tiganus, in response to questions about "free choice" in the context of prostitution, "to talk about agency or control of women is very perverse. Women in the global south are left with no choice."

A survivor of sex trafficking in the context of armed conflict, Susana Andrea Avella runs the Fundación Dignidad Abolicionista in Ibagué, in the Colombian department of Tolima. She participated in the creation of the national anti-trafficking strategy and created the comprehensive care methodology "Take my hand", which has benefited more than 600 women survivors of various forms of exploitation.

"I support the law for abolition not only because | am a survivor, but also to be the voice of many African women," states Lydia Osifo, a member of Las Poderosas, an organization that seeks to end violence against women. She is co-author of the album-book Libres para Soñar (Free to Dream) and part of the COPO Poderosa Sewing Workshop initiative, which the group carries out in collaboration with Acción Contra la Trata. "My parents were poor and couldn't provide us with three meals a day. That's why they took me to Europe. I was recruited for prostitution. It happened this way because I was a girl, not a boy”. Lydia Osifo's testimony describes the pattern that reinforces male domination over women.

Alika Kinan is a leading abolitionist and feminist from Argentina, where she was the first survivor of prostitution to successfully file a lawsuit against her exploiter and the state. She is the Director of the Alika Kinan Foundation and also the Program for Study, Training and Research on Human Trafficking at the National University of San Martin. For her, the fact that we can be discussing an abolitionist law means that good work is being done and it is an achievement that the victims themselves, the survivors themselves, are demanding it. "Today we are facing a monster that attacks our rights and our own thwarted life projects" she explained.

Rachel Moran is the founder of the survivor-led organisation SPACE International and author of the bestseller Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution. Moran was instrumental in bringing the abolitionist model to Ireland, which she considers "inadequate" when it comes to fines:

On the topic of data revealing high figures of prostitution demand in Spain, Rachel Moran believes that "it is a serious case" for which "now is the time. If we want to close a market, we have to put an end to the traders, and in this case, it is the pimps. (...) l am 46 years old, and I got out of the prostitution system at 22. For the good of the country, support us."