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CAP International at the 69th UN Commission on the Status of Women
20 March 2025This March 2025, on the occasion of the 69th Commission on the Status of Women, that CAP International and several of its members attended, they were able to send a strong message to the international community: the system of prostitution is violence against women.
This Commission marked the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, which lead to the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). The event reunited the international community to call for the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. Check some of the events CAP International attended.
Prostitution and cyberviolence: CAP’s participation in France’s side-event
CAP International intervened in the ambitious UN side-event of France and Osez le féminisme! on “Sexual and gender-based cyberviolence: Challenges and solutions to counter backlash and build a digital world free from violence against women and girls”.
This meeting gathered the French Minister of Equality, the Ambassador of Mexico, a Representative from Canada, Lisa Tamm from the Swedish Gender Equality Agency and a Representative from UNFPA.
CAP International addressed the increasing harms of the digitalisation of the prostitution system. It underlined that the latter preys on the most vulnerable, fuelled by demand from sex buyers and impunity of online platforms, whose business model is based on pimping. Poor, migrants and indigenous women are overrepresented on online prostitution platforms, categorised in sexist and racist categories. They are disproportionately the targets of male violence.
The event called for the adoption of the Abolitionist Model to hold perpetrators accountable both online and offline while protecting victims.
“No woman should have to choose between poverty or violence, abolish prostitution”
On the 8th of March, for International Women's Day, CAP International organised a powerful mobilisation of women's rights activitists with abolitionist posters in front of the United Nations spreading the message "No one should have to choose between poverty and violence, abolish prostitution" in 20 languages.
Our intervention in a parallel event on “Survivors of Prostitution: Beijing’s left behind?”
CAP International intervened along with our survivor-led member organisation in Italy, Weavers of Hope, in a parallel event organised by the European Women's Lobby, the French Coordination for European Women's Lobby (CLEF) and the Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights with the support of CAP and the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW).
CAP International addressed the results of different models on prostitution and the importance of survivors’ voices and experiences in guiding the way for abolitionist organisations.
Blessing Okoedion, founder of our member Weavers of Hope highlighted:
“Prostitution in itself is a market where the most vulnerable women are sold, bought and disposed”
Presenting our “Last Girl First" study to the CATHII project
For the 2nd consecutive year, CAP International made a presentation of its Last Girl first! Prostitution at the intersection of sex, race and classe based oppressions research report in front of 20 students from the CATHII Project from Montreal engaged in the area of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
This study conducted over two years, explores the over-represtation of women and girls from the most marginalised communites in prostitution, such as the indigenous, migrant, poor, ethnic, racial or religious minority, disproportionately impacted by the system of prostitution.
By retracing the historical, political and social roots of the system of prostitution, thhe report sheds light on the realities of prostitution by analysing the intersectional oppressions and the different patterns of domination such as patriachy, racism, colonialism, imperlialism or capitalism, that shape the prostitution system, and result in the economic and sexual exploitation of women and girls from discrimated groups.
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