On Wednesday 9th of December, Dame Diana Johnson introduced a Private Members Bill called “The Sexual Exploitation” bill.
Ostensibly it’s to protect “vulnerable women and girls”, but it’s actually an attempt to introduce The Nordic Model of Sex Work to UK.
If you’re not familiar with that term, The Nordic Model is a law which, whilst making it legal to be a sex worker, makes it illegal to pay a sex worker for their services.
Despite a rebuttal from Lyn Brown, the Labour MP for West Ham, who explained that it was “counterproductive” and would put sex workers at greater risk, the Bill passed its First Reading and has its Second Reading on the 5th of February (NB it has been put back from the original date of 29th of January which is mentioned in the video)
You can see the video on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au8mOggeDDc
If you are a UK Resident, please contact your MP urgently via http://theyworkforyou.com and explain to them why you want them to vote against this Bill and, instead, support the Decriminalisation of sex work (as has happened in New Zealand, New South Wales and the Northern Territories of Australia) and is the model that the vast majority of sex workers want.
Please like this and share this and the YouTube video via Fetlife and other Social Media so we can get the message over that the Nordic Model is dangerous and unhelpful to sex workers and that Decriminalisation is by far the best model to follow.
Thanks.
Here’s a copy of the letter we sent to our MP if you want to use it for inspiration:
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Dear Stephen Morgan MP,
In the past I was very pleased when you told me that you were willing to stand up for the rights and protections of minority groups such as trans people.
You may not be aware, but another minority group is now facing a threat to their safety and protection, that group being consenting adult sex workers.
On the 5th of February Dame Diana Johnson’s so-called “Sexual Exploitation” Private Members Bill has its second reading. Ostensibly this Bill is meant to protect vulnerable women and girls from trafficking, but it’s actually an attempt to introduce the Nordic Model of Sex Work to UK.
If you’re not familiar with that term, The Nordic Model (which you may also hear it being referred to by other names such as End Demand/ The Equality Model/ Sex Buyers’ Law etc) is a law that, whilst technically allowing someone to be a sex worker, makes it illegal to pay them for their services.
This makes as much sense as saying that it’s legal for you to open and run a restaurant, but, because some people may be trafficked into the catering trade, it is illegal for anyone to buy food from you. If this happened, you would very quickly go out of business, which, of course, is the real aim of the Nordic Model.
Another way that its proponents refer to the Nordic Model is “Partial Decriminalisation” or “Decriminalisation of Sex Work” (but with criminalisation of clients) however these are just attempts to deceive people by stealing the word “Decriminalisation” and misrepresenting what they are trying to do..
Sex Workers do want Decriminalisation, but not on the terms that The Nordic Model supporters offer, because, whilst it might appear to be a good idea (and its supporters claim it will protect sex workers) the facts show differently and it is nothing more than an underhand way of using the law to eliminate any and all sex work, even when done by consenting adults.
Here are some examples of the actual effects that the Nordic Model has had:
In France, in 2019, after the introduction of the Nordic Model, ten sex workers were murdered within the space of six months because they were forced to work away from safer areas as clients didn’t want to be in places where they could be seen by the Police.
In June 2020 the French government published an evaluation of the law, but the report didn’t mention at all how the law had negatively affected sex workers, nor the rise in violence they had experienced. Sarah-Marie Maffesoli, a lawyer and sex workers’ rights project leader at Médecins du Monde said “The government interviewed our associations for the report, but nothing we said made it into the final result. It’s like we don’t even exist.”
In Ireland, there has been a 92% increase in violence against Sex Workers reported to Ugly Mugs, a Sex Workers’ support organisation, in the years following the introduction of the Nordic Model there.
Note that sex workers preferred to report violence to their own organisations, rather than to the Gardai, because of the risk of arrest, for example two Sex Workers who were working together for safety were threatened with arrest for “running a brothel” after they reported a violent client.
In Norway, the Police ran a campaign which they called “Operation Homeless”, where, when they found a sex worker, they would contact their landlord and tell them that unless they evicted the sex worker, they would be charged with Pimping.
A report by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security for the Norwegian Government in 2014 found the law had created a “buyers market” and violence against Sex Workers had increased, yet they still have the law on their statute books.
In Sweden, there has been no evidence of decrease in purchase of sex, nor trafficking, nor that people who sell sex are better off, but in 2010 the Swedish Government declared Swedish Model “A success” and that any negative consequences, including increased stigma against Sex Workers “must be viewed as positive from the perspective that the purpose of the law is indeed to combat prostitution”.
The fundamental risk of the Nordic Model is that gives clients more power over Sex Workers because they have less chance to screen the bad ones out, due to them being less willing to give details, and they will withhold phone numbers etc preventing the use of ClientEye App and similar resources which allow Sex Workers to warn others of time wasters or aggressive and dangerous customers.
The Nordic Model supporters claim that they will put “Exit programmes” in place to help those who want to leave the job, which is all well and good, however sex workers’ experiences of these schemes are almost universally negative. For instance in France, ex-sex workers must swear that they won’t do the job again in order to qualify for aid, whilst in Ireland, some of the people who run the exit schemes are the same religious groups that ran the infamous Magdalene Laundries! Naturally, not many sex workers are willing to take up “help” from people like these.
Currently there are only three places in the world where sex work is Decriminalised, those are New Zealand, New South Wales and, most recently, the Northern Territories in Australia. In all of these places, sex workers are free to operate together for safety without risk of arrest for “running a brothel”. They have good relationships with the Police and know that, if they ask for help, they won’t be harassed or be told that they should expect it because “it’s just part of the job”.
The New Zealand law specifically states that a sex worker may withdraw consent at any time, but, despite this, the Nordic Model campaigners claim that clients “buy consent” and can then “do anything they want” to the sex worker which is clearly not true.
Also the New Zealand law makes it illegal to force or coerce anyone into sex work, yet the Nordic Model supporters will allege that it “decriminalises pimping”, deliberately using a pejorative term to try to create false associations of violence in people’s minds.
Full decriminalisation is recommended by many organisations, for instance some of the groups whose members have expressed support for it include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
The World Health Organisation, the Lancet Journal, the British Medical Journal, Doctors Without Borders, the Global Alliance Against Trafficking of Women, Freedom Network USA, National Union of Students and, most importantly, the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on Prostitution produced a report in 2016 recommending Decriminalisation.
As such, when this “Sexual Exploitation” Bill has its second reading, I urge you to attend and vote against it and, instead, speak out in favour of Decriminalisation which is what sex workers themselves actually want.
Yours Faithfully
Graham Marsden