In a recent interview, Reem Alsalem, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, claimed that both prostitution and pornography represent serious human rights violations, not legitimate employment opportunities. The
anti-sex work campaigner was discussing her 2024 Prostitution and violence against women and girls report. She said: In my report, I demonstrated that prostitution is a system of exploitation and violence against women
and girls. It is very gendered; it predominantly affects females, and it is perpetrated by males.
Alsalem is an independent campaigner, not a UN staff member. Her role entails reporting on the successes and failures of governments,
businesses, militaries, and other entities in addressing violence against women and girls. Alsalem notably refused to use the expression sex work in her report. The rport said: The term wrongly depicts prostitution as
an activity as worthy and dignified as any other work. It fails to take into account the serious human rights violations that characterize the prostitution system and 'gaslights' victims and their experiences.
According to Alsalem,
pornography operates the exact same way as prostitution and is considered as filmed prostitution. She said: It has the same perpetrators of violence, the same exploitation, the same consequences in terms of all forms of
violence inflicted on women and girls, in terms of being exploited by pimps, in terms of also having immense harmful impact on all society, including, I would say, men and boys, [and] younger girls, and harmful to gender equality overall in society.
Alsalem claimed that the vast majority of pornography is grotesque, degrading, and violent, lacking safeguards such as age verification and measures to prevent trafficking. Despite this, it is deliberately marketed to young women and
girls as a lucrative and glamorous pursuit. She said: Normalizing consuming pornography has become an issue that is an epidemic as well, on global proportions.
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