A/HRC/56/48 48. In addition, Member States having established regulated prostitution systems could be regarded as being in violation of article 1 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. E. Outstanding international legal challenges 49. International law does not address the prostitution system as a whole or defines it, but has rather focused on rights and protections of prostituted persons, especially women and children and the responsibility of third parties. Furthermore, it has not defined the terms “exploitation” or “exploitation of prostitution” either.168 Despite their global impact, other forms of sexual exploitation, such as pornography, have not been adequately addressed in international law. 50. International law has established the issue of “irrelevance of consent” within the framework of trafficking crimes and the exploitation of the prostitution of others. Moreover, there is now a universal trend towards regarding lack of consent as the essential element of rape and sexual abuse.169 These principles have not, however, been applied to prostitution. The payment and/or promise of payment is the most visible sign of a person being purchased rather than freely giving consent. Survivors frequently attest that, without payment, they would not engage in sexual activities with unknown men. Many describe prostitution as “paid rape.”170 Furthermore, the consent obtained in the context of prostitution is often coerced through abuse of power by pimps and buyers, as well as by the dire social and economic circumstances faced by prostituted women, where equal economic and social power, physical and mental safety, and real alternatives, are missing for true consent to be possible. Lastly, testimonies of many individuals who report that they had agreed to engage in prostitution on their own reveal patterns of abuse of vulnerability and power, manipulation or coerced prostitution or trafficking while in it, or have been enticed through “lover boy” or other “romantic” relationships. 51. The applicability of standards with regard to crimes against humanity, slavery, rape, torture, including non-State torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and decent work have also not been analysed in detail in the case of studies on prostitution and pornography. VIII. Conclusions and recommendations 52. Prostitution is a system of exploitation and an aggregated form of male violence against women and girls that intersects with other forms of structural discrimination. It is exercised systematically by a wide web of State and non-State actors that subjugate, control and exploit women and girls in violation of their fundamental human rights. The extreme levels of violence inflicted on women in prostitution – which would never be accepted in other contexts – are blanketed by a financial transaction, designed to materialize so-called “consent” that cannot be expressed freely in the prostitution system. In this context, the very concept of “consent” is weaponized against women in prostitution, as it is extorted through physical or economic coercion, manipulation and violence. Coercion is built into the prostitution system, facilitating entry factors as well as control and exploitation by pimps, traffickers and States. Attempts to ignore the devastating causes and consequences for women and girls and wider society are an extension of the historic normalization of women’s stereotyped role in society and the commodification of female sexual and reproductive capacities. Similarly, societies that 168 169 170 16 Article 1 of the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, however, clearly calls for the punishment of anyone who (1) procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, another person, even with the consent of that person; (2) exploits the prostitution of another person, even with the consent of that person. According to article 2 of the Convention, States parties further agree to punish any person who (1) keeps or manages, or knowingly finances or takes part in the financing of, a brothel; (2) knowingly lets or rents a building or other place or any part thereof for the purpose of the prostitution of other. A/HRC/47/26, para. 31. See https://www.spaceintl.org/.