KTD Criminalization, End Demand

Moving Beyond Supply and Demand Catchphrases: Assessing the uses and limitations of demand-based approaches in Anti-Trafficking

Authors: Ham, Julie

Moving Beyond Supply and Demand Catchphrases: Assessing the uses and limitations of demand-based approaches in Anti-Trafficking

Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW), 2011.

Description:

The need to reduce ‘demand’ for trafficked persons is widely mentioned in the anti-trafficking sector but few have looked at ‘demand’ critically or substantively. Some ‘demand’-based approaches have been heavily critiqued, such as the idea that eliminating sex workers’ clients (or the ‘demand’ for commercial sex) through incarceration or stigmatisation will reduce trafficking. In this publication, we take a look at the links between trafficking and: (1) the demand for commercial sex, and (2) the demand for exploitative labour practices. We assess current approaches used to reduce each of these types of ‘demand’ and consider other long-term approaches that can reduce the demand for exploitative practices while respecting workers’ and migrants’ rights (e.g. enforcing labour standards, reducing discrimination against migrants, supporting sex workers’ rights).

KTD Criminalization, End Demand

The Ban against the Purchase of Sexual Services. An evaluation: 1999-2008

Swedish Institute, November 2010

The Ban against the Purchase of Sexual Services. An evaluation 1999-2008

Abstract:

Since 1 January 1999, it has been a crime to buy sexual services in Sweden. In contrast to previous measures against prostitution, the criminalization of the purchase of sexual services targets the demand, i.e., the sex buyer or the prospective sex buyer.

The aim of this report is to evaluate the application of the ban on the purchase of sexual services and its effects. The Swedish Institute investigated how the provision has worked in practice and its effects on the prevalence of prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes in Sweden. 

KTD End Demand

Sex Workers Critique of Swedish Prostitution Policy

Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Police Affairs, op. cit.; Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare op. cit.; Dodillet & Östergren, op. cit.; P. Östergren (2003)

Sex Workers Critique of Swedish Prostitution Policy

Author’s Introduction:

In this article I will not deal with the complex issue of whether prostitution is socially or otherwise desirable. Rather this article seeks to document some of the experiences and opinions of female sex workers in Sweden. I have been concerned by the fact that the very women who are at the center of prostitution policy are so rarely heard and so often feel discriminated against. If equal rights for women is important, then the experience of sex workers themselves must surely be central to our discussion, regardless of what position one takes on prostitution.

The law against procurement of sexual services (promotion or deriving profit from prostitution) and a recent law prohibiting the purchase of sexual services introduced in 1999 are the two main ways the Swedish state sees itself as “combating” prostitution. Swedish politicians and feminists are proud of the state’s prostitution policy. They insist that it has positive effects. Sex workers are of a different view. Most of the female Swedish sex workers I have interviewed voice a strong critique of their legal and social situation. They feel discriminated against, endangered by the very laws that seek to protect them, and they feel under severe emotional stress as a result of the laws.

The material in this article stems from my interviews, informal talks and correspondence with approximately 20 sexworkers since 1996, as well as published and broadcasted interviews with sexworkers in Swedish media. It is also based on interviews with people working with women selling sex to support a drug habit (most whom also are homeless). This article also contains a summary of reports conducted by Swedish authorities after the introduction of new legislation (the criminalization of clients)

KTD Criminalization, End Demand

Sex Work Law Reform in Canada: Considering Problems with the Nordic Model

Authors: Sandra Ka Hon Chu and Rebecca Glass

Sex Work Law Reform in Canada: Considering Problems with the Nordic Model

Alberta Law Review (2013) 51:1. [Canada, Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA)]

Abstract:

The Nordic model is a piece of legislation, passed in Sweden in 1999, which criminalizes the purchase of sex. In Canada, exchanging sex for money is not illegal, but virtually every activity associated with prostitution is. Following the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Bedford v. Canada, the question of what type of legislation is most appropriate with respect to prostitution has become even more important. This article begins by evaluating the degree of success (or lack thereof) of the Nordic model. The article then goes on to determine whether legislation similar to the Nordic model would be constitutional if adopted in Canada.