Norway to adopt Swedish-style prostitution law

By Jess McCabe | 22 April 2008, 11:36

The Norwegian government is planning implement its promise to copy Sweden’s approach to prostitution, which involves criminalising men who buy sex, while protecting people in prostitution from prosecution, reports Reuters.

“People are not merchandise, and criminalising the purchase of sexual services will make it less attractive for human traffickers to look to Norway,” Justice Minister Knut Storberget said in a statement.

Storberget refuted suggestions (also raised in objection to the situation in Sweden), that this would make life worse for prostitutes:

“Criminalisation shall not lead to a worse situation for the prostitutes,” Storberget said, adding that the government had taken other steps to get prostitutes out of the business.

Of course, it’s not that surprising to see Norway going in this direction - a country with a pretty decent record on pursuing gender equality.

(Via womensphere)

Have your say

In order to keep this blog as a feminist and friendly space, comments will be subject to some rules. We do not seek to censor debate: the beauty of the internet is that anyone can set up their own blog or website to express their views.

This blog is a safe and friendly space for feminists and feminist allies. Debate and critique are welcome where it is constructive and deepens analysis or understanding. Anti-feminist comments will not be approved. We get to decide what's anti-feminist.
All comments must be approved by one of the bloggers. For this reason, there may be a delay before your comment appears.
No sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ablist comments, comments which make personal attacks on any blogger or commenter, or comments that are otherwise deemed offensive by us will be posted.
Trolls will be banned from commenting. We get to decide who is a troll.
No anonymous comments - please feel free to use your real name or make one up, though.
Be nice.

< back | top ^ | next >

Latest Posts: 'Impossibly perfect', music video edition; Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven; Women and Silent Britain; First Weekenders Club x2; Send a card, save a life?; Oxfordshire Reclaim the Night - tomorrow!; Forced marriage and 'honour' based abuse helpline faces closure.; Reclaim the Night Leeds; Feminist Spoons; New piece on CiF - 'Population control is not what makes climate change a feminist issue'; More posts

Latest Comments: Amylee on Send a card, save a life?; RadFemHedonist on Feminist Spoons; earwicga on Send a card, save a life?; Cazz on Send a card, save a life?; sima valand on Sima Valand due to be forcibly removed from the UK today (Fri 8th); zohra on Feminist Spoons; BoB on JSA Rant; polly on JSA Rant; Soirore on Women and Silent Britain; Daniela Vincenti on Reclaim the Night Leeds

More feminist bloggers: There are plenty of fantastic UK feminist bloggers around. For a fantastic introduction to feminist blogging, go to the Carnival of Feminists website, which showcases the finest feminist posts from around the blogsphere, including many from UK blogs.

How to contribute to The F-Word: Got something to say? Something to review? News to discuss? Well we want to hear from you! Click here for more info

Events: Check out our events listings for info on some of the fantastic feminist events going on up and down the country. Please get in touch to tell us about events we've not listed yet.

Small Print: All blog posts are the views of the individual post author, and not those of The F-Word.