Reforming legislation on human trafficking and prostitution ‎

In collaboration with the Beirut Bar Association, Kafa, Enough Violence, ‎organization held a seminar yesterday at the House of the Lawyer in Beirut in the ‎presence of a number of ambassadors, judges and concerned activists. On the ‎occasion, the Single Judge in Jeb Jabnin, Beqaa, Fadi Aridi, brought to mind ‎challenges impeding the enforcement of the Law on Human Trafficking in ‎Lebanon No. 164/2011. Likewise, the officer for  the Anti-Trafficking and ‎Exploitation of Women Unit at Kafa, Ghada Jabbur, tackled prostitution facts in ‎the country, like for example, the interrelation between human trafficking and ‎prostitution, the role of the sex buyer and points of disagreement between the ‎three mainstream analogies involving prostitution (interdictive, regulatory, and ‎obliterative). For his part, the executive director of the Global Alliance Against ‎Trafficking in Women, Gregoire Terry, outlined the new French legislation that ‎fights prostitution, supports victims and penalizes both sex dealers and buyers. ‎‎ Recommendations were issued at the end of the seminar which called for the ‎following: 1) readdress any legislative or regulatory texts that could be ‎misinterpreted to sanction the act of exploitation or trafficking in persons, or that ‎could support sex traders in court in terms of  corroborating the legality of their ‎action, 2) amendment of the law of human trafficking and exemption of the ‎victim from the toil of proving they are victims, 3) modification of all human ‎trafficking related laws while annexing them to the above Law No. 164, with ‎emphasis on decriminalizing the victims and ensuring their protection, in addition ‎to removing the term ‘Force’ mentioned under the definition of exploitation, 4) ‎penalizing the sex buyer (customer) in order to check his role in sustaining ‎prostitution and human trafficking. (Al Mustaqbal, Al Akhbar, May 20, 2016)‎