RealStars had the privilege of being present at Järvaveckan 2018. A special thanks to Parul Sharma, the ambassador for RealStars, and CSR Sweden who invited us to their tent. The purpose was to spread knowledge and create engagement about Fair Sex, and to work against trafficking and sex purchasing. In addition, we even had time to exchange some words with Prime Minister Stefan Löfvén himself.
Järvaveckan is a great initiative and of course RealStars were present, in order to both meet adults, children and youths and to spread the message about Fair Sex. During the two days we had the opportunity to speak with civilians, politicians, businesspeople and other stakeholders about prostitution’s harmful effects, consent, sexual education and other important topics concerning Fair Sex.
Hussain Juhari is a student at the language introduction course on the Fredrika Bremer school in Haninge. He was at Järvaveckan with his friends and thought that RealStars should come to his school, since they do not talk enough about Fair Sex.
“We had one lecture about sex and discussed how we regard it differently in different countries and cultures. But we need to talk more about other aspects, like sexual harassment.”
Since one in five swedes purchasing sex abroad does so during a business trip (according to the scientific study Prostitution in the Nordic Region), businesses have the opportunity to have a big impact on the situation through policies and directives for their employees. A stance against sex purchasing is a stance for human rights and social responsibility.
Åsa Lindgren works at Sweco and was active at the Spånga sports stadium during the week, but gave us a few minutes to talk about companies’ responsibility to work against sex purchasing and trafficking.
How normal do you think sex purchasing abroad really is?
“Unfortunately, a lot more normal than you’d think. But it’s something you hardly want to think about. “
Has your company taken a stance against sex purchasing?
“We have taken a stance against sex purchasing in our policies. Sweco is an enormous company with more than 15 000 employees, so it’s an important question.”
What do you think you could do to strengthen your stance?
“We could be more explicit both externally and internally. We are working on the global goals and could connect it to that. But clarity and communication are important in order to reach out to our employees and create safety. But no, I don’t think we’re currently able to reach everyone with this work.”
Many visitors wanted to get engaged and signed our petition to the EU commission for an explicit, clear and common sex purchasing law within the EU, based on the Nordic model. Last but not least, our wonderful facilitator managed to organise a conversation with Prime Minister Stefan Löfvén. Along with his coworkers, Löfvén showed great interest for RealStars’ work and could tell us about efforts made against sex purchasing and trafficking in other parts of the world. The prime minister and his staff pointed out the importance of RealStars’ work on several occasions, and wished us good luck in the future.
