User:Sparrow (2019)/Abolitionismus (Prostitution)

Abolitionism was a social movement within the women's movement aiming at ending state regulated prostitution.

History
The women's rights activist Josephine Butler is known as the founder of abolitionism. She fought in a campaign against the Contagious Diseases Act for several years. The act stated that prostitutes had to undergo forced medical examinations with the goal of limiting the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. The male customers had to however not undergo these examinations. Many women thought that in such laws the sexual double standard between the two sexes was being cemented. Meaning that men were given more sexual freedom than women. The term "abolitionism" was consciously taken from the anti- slavery movement in the United States. Butler wanted to end the judicial and sexual slavery of women, which was found in it's worst form in "modern slavery" within prostitution. During this time at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century the sexual violence targeted against non- white women wasn't yet part of the debate. There were still many racial prejudices that existed like the hyper sexuality of black women and their natural inclination towards prostitution on the one hand and the innocence of white women on the other hand. Inspired by Josephine Butler and the Ladies National Organisation lead by her other similar organizations were formed in other countries. These organizations wanted to uphold the illegality of prostitution, fought for strong morals and wanted both sexes to follow chastity. The goal of the abolitionists was the decrease of the artificial demand for commercialised sex. From their point of view the demand would dampen without state licensed brothels, police registration of prostitutes and the forced medical examinations. Because of their efforts the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others was passed by the UN general assembly on the second of december 1949. The aim of the convention was to eradicate international human trafficking for the sex industry and sex work in general as much as possible.

Switzerland
1875 the International Abolitionist Federation was founded in Geneva.