Scottish ministers to consider change in law to make having sex with prostitutes who are victims of human trafficking an offence
MINISTERS are facing calls to extend the definition of rape to include having sex with prostitutes who are victims of human trafficking.
The campaign group Rape Crisis Scotland is urging the Scottish Government to create a new definition of rape that includes having sex with trafficked prostitutes who work for pimps or in licensed saunas.
The SNP government is expected to publish a new bill this spring which will propose one of the biggest reforms of sexual offences laws in Scotland.
The bill will be based on proposals drawn up the Scottish Law Commission. They include, for the first time, a clear definition of consent, which will require there to be "free agreement" to sex.
The proposals are currently out to consultation. In its response to the consultation, Rape Crisis Scotland has effectively called for a widening of the definition of rape.
It claims that if rape is to be defined as the absence of "free agreement" to sex, this should include women forced to work in the sex industry. "Circumstances in which the complainer had been trafficked for prostitution should be included as a situation where consent is absent, and intercourse constitutes rape," the submission states.
Sandy Brindlay, the national co-ordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland, said:
"Men who use trafficked women for sex are sometimes aware the women doesn't want to go through with it. In those circumstances, it's obvious the woman isn't consenting to sex. Men who have sex with women who have been trafficked are committing rape."
Last night, however, legal experts expressed concerns that such a law would be unworkable and would offer no protection for British prostitutes who were suffering the same kind of violence and intimidation.
John Scott, a human rights lawyer, said: "(The new law] would mean the men could be guilty even if they didn't realise the women had been trafficked. It is unworkable."
Margo MacDonald, the Independent MSP for Lothian, who has campaigned for changes to prostitution laws, described the proposals as "impossible".
She said: "(The women] may have been trafficked and have paid to come to Britain, and some know they are going to work as prostitutes. You could hardly bring a (rape] charge if the woman has come to work in the sex industry in this country."
Extending the definition of rape to include sex with trafficked prostitutes would be controversial, as some men would claim they were unaware the women were working against their will.
But Ms Brindlay says that does not change that fact that they are being forced to have sex. "At the moment, it is not a crime to have sex with women trafficked from abroad. That is plainly wrong, given what we know about what these women have to endure."
A recent police operation identified more than 30 women working in enforced prostitution in Scotland. The first "Pentameter II" raids in Edinburgh last year found seven women who had travelled to Britain to pay a family debt and ended up working in the city's sex industry.
CHALLENGING ATTITUDES
A HARD-HITTING campaign designed to change public attitudes to rape will be launched later this year, backed by nearly 200,000 of government funding.
The campaign, titled: This is not an invitation to rape me, will challenge myths about rape and is being developed by Rape Crisis Scotland.
Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, said: "It is hard to believe there are people who still think that if a woman dresses in a certain way, or has been drinking, it's her fault if she is raped.
"Similarly, people who believe that a woman can't be raped by her husband, or someone else she knows, are wrong."
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