La Strada Documentation Center

Review of the World Cup Campaigns

Document number
1297
Date
2006
Title
Review of the World Cup Campaigns
Author/publisher
Bundesweiter Koordinierungskreis gegen Frauenhandel und Gewalt an Frauen im Migrationsprozess (KOK)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Football, Sport, Demand, Media, Prevention campaigns, Women's rights; Women; Control and regulation of prostitution, Protection, Punishable forms of prostitution,
Summary
"On behalf of the Football (Soccer-) World Championships held recently in Germany, various national and regional campaigns were started to call attention to trafficking in women [...]. The campaigns reached national and international recognition on the theme of trafficking in women as well as the necessity for instituting appropriate measures being recognized. While speaking to many people on this theme, several actions were successful in sensitizing them and gaining recognition for the situation of affected women. At the same time, all state legislative assemblies of all 16 states of the Federal Republic argued, often on behalf of the campaign ‘Abpfiff’ under the leadership of the German Womens’ Advisory Board. [...] However, the biggest and most misleading problem which came to light charged by the German Association of Cities and Towns (DST) and further carried by the media was the mistakenly mentioned number of “40,000 prostitutes” or the later mentioned “40,000 forced prostitutes” expected during the World Cup. Although many experts, for example from the specialized counseling centres, as well as from police circles, demented the statements and pointed out over and over again that these were absolute fictitious numbers dreamed up, but that it could not be forseen ‘if or how many’ women in association with the World Cup would become victims of trafficking, and yet these rumours lasted throughout and until the end. [...] Approaches to combat human trafficking, in our judgement, lie neither in restrictive migration politics nor in the prohibition of prostitution, as is frequently demanded and as some States intensified their demands with their view towards the World Cup."
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