Vanesa Campos

Vanesa Campos (died 17 August 2018) was a trans sex worker and an undocumented migrant from Peru living in Paris. She was 36 when she was murdered at the Bois de Boulogne during the night of 16 to 17 August 2018. Her murder occurred after she resisted a group of men armed with a gun stolen from a police officer.

This crime took place in a context of rising insecurity in the Bois de Boulogne, a situation which is the result of a new law aimed at reinforcing the "fight against the prostitution system” by penalizing prostitutes’ clients, thus forcing sex workers to retreat deeper into the woods where they are safe from police intervention but left at the mercy of mafia gangs.

Ten suspects, nine Egyptians and a Syrian, including at least two minors, were arrested between August 2018 and January 2019 in France and Germany. The prosecutors seeks to charge nine men for the murder. On January 30, 2022, two of them were sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment for organised murder, and the others were sentenced to three to six years' imprisonment.

Biography

Vanesa Campos grew up in Cayaltí, a small village in northern Peru. She was forced to leave her home as her parents did not understand her gender identity. She became friends with Karen who came to be her role model and taught her how to defend herself. They both left their villages to go and live in the capital, Lima. In 2012, after Argentina passed a law allowing citizens to change their civil status upon a simple declaration, Karen and Vanesa Campos left for Buenos Aires. Yet, Vanessa used to be sporty and was involved with a few organisations and in particular with Acceptess-T. According to Giovanna Rincon, the head of this organisation, Vanesa was eager to help the weak, never afraid to “go on the front line to defend her friends and work colleagues.” A friend describes her as “a huge loudmouth who wasn't scared of anything.” their attacks were daily. Vanesa Campos tried to alert the police during one of their patrols, however, due to a lack of proof the officers did not respond to her complaints: (other sources place the theft on August 9 they then fled the scene in a car.

Reactions

The day after the murder, indifference was the general reaction. Newspapers misgendered the victim by quoting a police report about the murder of a (male) “transvestite-prostitute,” which constituted a “second killing of Vanesa.” A police source declared in the Parisien that the victim was “wrong” in facing the aggressors of her client. ), participated to a solemn march in her honour that went from the Porte Dauphine in Paris all the way to the actual place of the murder. Another aim of the event was to demand justice for the victims of attacks

Under the slogans “Trans murdered, State Accomplice!” and “Arrest our aggressors, not our clients,” the organisations taking part to the march called for the repeal of the laws suppressing and criminalising prostitution from 2003 to 2016, which had been responsible for the surge of violence in places where prostitution was practiced. Other rallies took place in France on the same day, in Lille and Lyon. was called out for her lack of reaction by deputy Raphaël Gérard (LREM) adding that “every woman should be protected against sexist and sexual violence, every act of violence must be condemned.”

The French weekly magazine Paris Match published, in early September 2018, the photograph of the naked corpse of Vanesa Campos. As a reaction, Acceptess-T gathered enough money to pay for Vanesa's sister's plane ticket and bring her to France. The organisation provided the services of their lawyer and joined her in the filing of a civil case. The magazine was ordered to pay €12000 in damages to the victim's sister.

On September 21, 2018, mobilisation was still strong and a new march was organised in Paris, the foreign press thus started to spread Vanesa's story, announcing that several suspects had been arrested.

In 2019, a year after the murder, about fifty people joined in a commemorative rally. A friend of Vanesa declared: “we will keep on fighting, not only for Vanesa, but for every woman who works here, for trans people, for LGBTI people.” On her part, the co-president of Acceptess-T promised: “we won’t give up. We will have no rest until the murderers are condemned.”

Investigation and judicial consequences Thanks to the testimonies of Vanesa's colleagues and friends, the police were able to draw the profiles of the attackers. On Monday, August 20, 2018, five people, aged from 16 to 30 years old, were charged with "murder in organized band" and "theft and deterioration," they were consequently taken into custody before their trial. In May 2019, the murder weapon was found in the woods. The trial opened in January 2022. On January 30, 2022, two men were sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment for organised murder, and the others were sentenced to three to six years' imprisonment.

A consequence of French authorities' "fight against the prostitution system" The murder of Vanesa Campos resparked the debate over the penalization of prostitution. In 2016, on the initiative of the minister of women's rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem who was strongly opposed to prostitution which she deemed necessarily a forced situation, the French parliament abolished soliciting as an offense and, for the first time in the history of the fight against prostitution in France, it introduced the penalization of clients. According to this new law, "aimed at reinforcing the fight against prostitution as a system," buying a prostitute's services was then punishable with a fine of €1,500 ($1,750), up to €3,750 for repeat offenders. According to sex workers, the consequences of the new law are numerous and highly harmful: prostitutes would now be forced to accept clients and practices they used to refuse, compelling them to hide in order to ensure the anonymity of their clients. As a consequence, prostitutes face ever more threatening clients, demanding unprotected sex and lower prices. A study led by two non-profits among 589 sex workers revealed that 88% of them are opposed to the law, and 78% saw their income decline, putting them in an ever more precarious situation. A 50-year-old prostitute told Le Monde'' that "for the past two years, there has been a wave of repeated aggressions, such a thing has been unseen so far," while Giovanna Rincon proclaims that "the law is 100% responsible for the death of Vanesa".