CATW Supports Prosecution of Dominique Strauss-Kahn

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 6, 2011

CATW Supports Prosecution of Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Contact: NORMA RAMOS, Esq., Executive Director, CATW 917-442-4812
[email protected]

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), the world’s first organization to fight human trafficking internationally, stands in firm support of the victim in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case. CATW calls upon Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance to press forward with a full, fair, and vigorous prosecution of Strauss-Kahn. We urge D.A. Vance to have the courage to resist the political and cultural norm of retreating in the face of character assassinations of the victim.

Around the world, we have seen how allegations of being prostituted are used to deny women and girls of credibility, when it is women and girls in prostitution who are the most vulnerable to sexual violence. “Prostitution, the endpoint of sex trafficking, is violence against women, and can never be the basis to deny someone of justice,” says Norma Ramos, Executive Director of CATW.

We call upon the media to cease printing unproven allegations and using possible histories of sexual exploitation as an excuse to dismiss claims of sexual assault.

We stand in equal support of Tristane Banon as she presses forward with her charges against Strauss-Kahn for his attempted rape of her in 2003.
Print Version

[link to CASAC policy on criminalizing violence against women]