Gentlemen’s clubs should be closed down, not regulated - MCWO

Businesses that glamorise the exploitation and objectification of women for profit in reality are hubs for prostitution, human trafficking and crime, the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations (MCWO) said yesterday in reference to reports that the government is planning to regulate such establishments.

Such establishments, the MCWO said, “should be closed not regulated.”

The MCWO yesterday reinforced its “2013 position against the regulation of these types of businesses which glamorise the exploitation and objectification of women for profit.

“International research shows that often there are strong links between these adult clubs and crime, prostitution and human trafficking. In this environment, like in brothels, victims of human trafficking often go unnoticed or unidentified. Besides, strippers are routinely sexually harassed and assaulted by owners and patrons and are sometimes pressured to offer sexual services.”

The Confederation stressed that such working conditions for women should never be tolerated or regulated by law and Malta should follow the Icelandic stand on Gentlemen’s Clubs that placed a ban and made it illegal for any business to profit from the nudity and the objectification of their employees.

The Confederation is an umbrella organisation that represents 12 local member organisations which collectively have around 24,000 female members. The MCWO is a full member of the Brussels based European Women’s Lobby.