NSWP Statement in Response to European Parliament Support for Proposals Criminalising the Purchase of Sex

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Year
2014

The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) have released a statement strongly condemning the recent EU Parliament vote on the flawed report prepared by MEP Mary Honeyball.

The statement criticises the rapporteur (and the majority of the European Parliament) for voting against a motion to repeal all repressive legislation against 'prostituted persons'. The statement goes on to show how the Honeyball report deliberately conflated trafficking and organised crime with sex work, ignored the voices of male and trans sex workers, termed all and any sex work as a form of violence against women and finally failed to properly inform MEPs about the various legal frameworks in which sex work exists. The rapport failed to inform MEPs of the model (full decriminalisation of sex work) that sex workers themselves have called for and advocate for.

In approving this report the Parliament has sent a strong signal to EU Member States that the preferred approach for countries to take with regard to sex work is the so-called ‘Nordic Model’ – against all of the academic evidence which attests to the harms caused by this approach. The ‘Nordic Model’ incorrectly purports to decriminalise the sex worker while ‘only’ criminalising the client. The report has been shown to be littered with inaccuracies and based on an intractable ideological viewpoint, resulting in an utterly biased conclusion which rides roughshod over the human rights of sex workers.

You can download this 3 page PDF resource above. This resource is in English.