Norsk kvinnesaksforening

NOKS, Spring 2006 The Nordic – Baltic Meeting in Tallinn 27.-29.4.

A Summary

The spring 2006 NOKS meeting was hosted by Finland’s umbrella organisation for women’s associations (The Coalition of Finnish Women’s Associations - NYTKIS). However, the meeting was not held in Finland but in Tallinn in order to give the representatives a chance to participate in the highly topical conference Demand for Prostitution, which was held at the Tallinn University on Friday 28. April. Prostitution and trafficking were also among the themes of the NOKS meeting. Other topics were Women in Politics and The Future of the NOKS.

During the course of the meeting, it turned out that it was indeed a very good idea to combine the NOKS meeting with the chosen conference. The Demand for Prostitution conference was a success. It also inspired the meeting participants to write a resolution to the parliamentarians of all Nordic and Baltic countries (except for Sweden, the “model country” with a law criminalizing the buying of sex) encouraging them to target the demand for prostitution. It was the common understanding of the NOKS participants, that addressing the demand is the most effective means of preventing prostitution and trafficking in human beings.

Meeting Schedule

Thursday 27.4.2006: Women in Politics

The meeting started with country presentations on the topic Women in Politics. Finland, the organising country, is celebrating a hundred years of women’s full political rights in 2006-2007. As a result, a short presentation on the history of women’s political rights in Finland was heard.

To sum up the presentations it can be stated that the number of women in politics (in the parliament or as decision makers at the municipal level) doesn’t equal the number of women in the society. Especially the lack of women in top political positions such as ministers, mayors or chairs of parliamentary committees is a problem that we need to focus on. Furthermore, it seems that there has been no improvement whatsoever in some countries in recent years. For example in the Danish and Finnish parliaments the number of women MP’s seems to have come to a halt with less that 40 % of the MP’s representing the female sex. In some of the participating countries the number of female MP’s is as low as 20 % and in the Faeroe Islands only 3 MP’s out of 31 are women.

Also some encouraging facts were presented in the meeting: in Sweden (1994) most parties decided that every other person that was up for parliamentary elections, county councils and municipal councils should be a woman. As a result of this, Sweden now has an almost equal representation of men and women in the parliament. Right now there is a slight male majority in the parliament (54,3%) as well as in the government (with 12 male and 10 female ministers).

Not only in Sweden, but also in Finland there are just about as many male and female ministers. Another pleasant fact is that in Iceland a special committee has been appointed to increase the amount of women in politics and we might see the number of female councillors go up in the municipal elections this year.

There is no doubt that the amount of women in the politics is a significant factor if we want to achieve an equal society. However, even having 50-50 representation doesn’t guarantee true equality. It is just as important to focus on power. It is normally the case that men are in charge of the most powerful ministries, like the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whereas women are left with more insignificant posts.

In some countries, for example in Latvia there are more women (42 %) in the communal politics than in the parliament (21 %). In others the situation is much worse at the municipal level than it is in the parliament. It is a relevant fear that the current trend towards bigger communities could further hinder women’s participation in the politics at the municipal level. There is also the danger that of the ever-larger communities fewer and fewer might be trusted in the hands of a female mayor.

Friday 28.4.2006: Conference on the Demand for Prostitution

The Demand for Prostitution conference introduced some excellent speakers to an audience of 60 people. Prosecutor Lise Tamm and Special Adviser Gunilla Ekberg of Sweden convinced the audience of the superiority of the Swedish model of facing the problems of prostitution and trafficking in human beings. It was clearly shown, that by criminalizing the buying of sex a country can be made unattractive to pimps and traffickers and prostitution can thus be effectively prevented. Also, by categorising the act of buying access to another person’s body as unacceptable, the society can send a clear message to its members: another human being cannot be bought.

Leena Ruusuvuori, Secretary General for National Council of Women and Jussi Aaltonen from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, both from Finland, talked about the current situation in Finland. There is a government bill that, if accepted by the parliament, would criminalize the act of buying sex.

To give the audience an overview on the situation in Estonia, Kristiina Aavik from the Ministry of Justice and Ago Leis, Chief Inspector at the Interior Ministry’s Central Criminal Police tackled the topic: „Is Estonia ready to prohibit the buying of sex?“

To add to the country presentations, Janice Raymond from the US based Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) talked about why it is indeed important to address the demand for prostitution. She presented some very convincing (read: horrifying) examples of the means of the traffickers to get more women in the industry. There are, to name just one example, cases of young girls being lured with false promises from their own schoolyards in Brazil to work as prostitutes in the World Championship Football Games in Germany this summer.

Saturday, 29.4.2006: Prostitution and Trafficking, Future of the NOKS

The themes of the last day of the meeting were Prostitution and Trafficking and The Future of the NOKS. The Saturday session was started with discussing the conference of the previous day and with writing a resolution to the Nordic and Baltic parliaments. It was the common understanding that criminalizing the buying of sex is the right path to follow in any country. It is important to hold on to the vision of a future where the exploitation of women is no longer accepted or tolerated.

The future of the NOKS was also discussed. The following decisions were made:

1. NOKS should continue its work as a network of Nordic and Baltic women’s organisations. 2. The Baltic countries should be given an official status as member countries and they should be able to operate within the network on equal terms with other participating countries. As a result of this, new sources of income should be searched, also by/from the Baltic member countries. In the next NOKS meeting a new name for the Nordic – Baltic network shall be chosen. 3. The network should continue its work as a meeting forum for women’s organisations of the member countries. 4. A more efficient exchange of ideas/information/opinions is required in between the meetings. 5. Each member country should name a contact person to join a joint email list to facilitate the exchange of information.

The following countries/organisations were represented at the meeting:

Women’s Council in Denmark Estonian Women’s Associations Round Table The Coalition of Finnish Women’s Associations – NYTKIS The Union of Faeroe Islands’ Women Icelandic Women’s Rights Association (KRFI) Women’s Network of NGO’s in Latvia Women’s Issues Information Centre, Lithuania Swedish Women’s Lobby