Gunilla Ekberg
Violence Against Women, Vol. 10, No. 10, 1187-1218 (2004)
After several years of public debate initiated by the Swedish women’s movement, the Law That Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services came into force on January 1, 1999. The Law is the first attempt by a country to address the root cause of prostitution and trafficking in beings: the demand, the men who assume the right to purchase persons for prostitution purposes. This groundbreaking law is a cornerstone of Swedish efforts to create a contemporary, democratic society where women and girls can live lives free of all forms of male violence. In combination with public education, awareness-raising campaigns, and victim support, the Law and other legislation establish a zero tolerance policy for prostitution and trafficking in human beings. When the buyers risk punishment, the number of men who buy prostituted persons decreases, and the local prostitution markets become less lucrative. Traffickers will then choose other and more profitable destinations.
Prostitution and trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation have shown an alarming increase during the past several decades. The prostitution industry1 is booming and expanding in a world where many countries subscribe to the ideology of a free market economy, a market in which women and girls are just one among an infinite number of highly saleable items. Thus, trafficking and prostitution of women and girls for profit is one of the fastest growing global enterprises, after drug and arms trafficking. Meanwhile, prostitution has been normalized by neoliberals as a form of sexual entertainment, with equal players exchanging services for money. “Working” as a “sex worker”2 is seen as a legitimate career path for women, and employment centers in the Netherlands, where prostitution and brothels are legalized, suggest brothel worker as an appropriate professional choice. What previously was viewed as a severe form of sexual exploitation is now a woman’s right to do what she wants with her body and a way to sexual liberation and self-determination. This change is a contemporary and pertinent example of the revival of a stagnant repressive political agenda, which now permeates virtually all current political, academic, and popular discourses on prostitution and trafficking in human beings.
However, not every country in the world is equally enthusiastic about the idea that prostitution should be seen as a form of work, or that sexual exploitation of women by men should be commercialized and legalized. In its proposal to prohibit the purchase of sexual services, the Swedish government states,
By prohibiting the purchase of sexual services, prostitution and its damaging effects can be counteracted more effectively than hitherto. . . . The government considers, however, that it is not reasonable to punish the person who sells a sexual service. In the majority of cases at least, this person is a weaker partner who is exploited by those who want only to satisfy their sexual drives. (Ministry of Labour, 1998, p. 55)
PRINCIPLES BEHIND SWEDISH POLICIES AND LEGISLATION AGAINST PROSTITUTION AND TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS
For a long time, the work against prostitution and trafficking in human beings has been a political priority in Sweden, at the national level as well as international level. The work is considered an essential part of efforts to create a contemporary anddemocratic society where full gender equality is the norm, and to recognize the right to equal participation of women and men, girls and boys, in all areas of society.
In Sweden, it is understood that any society that claims to defend principles of legal, political, economic, and social equality for women and girls must reject the idea that women and children, mostly girls, are commodities that can be bought, sold, and sexually exploited by men. To do otherwise is to allow that a separate class of female human beings, especially women and girls who are economically and racially marginalized, is excluded from these measures, as well as from the universal protection of human dignity enshrined in the body of international human rights instruments developed during the past 50 years (Ministry of Industry, Employment, and Communications, 2004).
In Sweden, prostitution is officially acknowledged as a form of male sexual violence against women and children. One of the cornerstones of Swedish policies against prostitution and trafficking in human beings is the focus on the root cause, the recognition that without men’s demand for and use of women and girls for sexual exploitation, the global prostitution industry would not be able flourish and expand.
Prostitution is a serious problem that is harmful, in particular, not only to the prostituted woman or child but also to society at large. Therefore, prostituted women and children are seen as victims of male violence who do not risk legal penalties. Instead, they have a right to assistance to escape prostitution.3 Pimps, traffickers, and prostitution buyers knowingly exploit the vulnerability of the victims caused by high rates of poverty, unemployment, discriminatory labor practices, gender inequalities, and male violence against women and children. On a structural level, Sweden recognizes that to succeed in the campaign against sexual exploitation, the political, social, and economic conditions under which women and girls live must be ameliorated by introducing development measures of, for example, poverty reduction, sustainable development, and social programs focusing specifically on women.
In Sweden, prostitution and trafficking in human beings for sexual purposes are seen as issues that cannot, and should not, be separated; both are harmful practices and intrinsically linked. It is understood that the purpose of the recruitment, transport, sale, or purchase of women and girls by traffickers, pimps, and members of organized crime groups within countries or across national borders is, in the overwhelming majority of cases, to sell these female human beings into the prostitution industry. Accordingly, it is argued that trafficking in human beings for sexual purposes will never be eliminated unless the international community also takes a vigorous stand and puts in place concrete measures against prostitution and sexual exploitation. In fact, as early as the first decades of the 20th century, pioneering Swedish feminists, in their efforts to combat prostitution and the traffic in women and girls, illuminated the link between the international trafficking in women and the position of women and girls in society.4
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