Issues

• The increase of Hiv/Aids during the 1990s changed the political approach towards prostitution. 
• Focus moved from moral issues to focusing on health. 
• During the late 90's it changed again when prostitution was linked to migration and organized crime. 
• Resources to prevent and combat sexual exploitation of women now replaced health services. 
• In the Nordic countries this led to a policy reform shifting the focus from sex workers to pimps, traffickers and the demand side of prostitution. 
• Our aim is to give a presentation of how the Nordic countries’ political and legal approach has changed the view on sex workers and how this has had impact on Hiv/STI prevention work within sex workers’ communities.

The ban of punters 

• “Historically criminalization in Western Europe has been motivated by religious or otherwise moral views gender equality is the headline in Sweden and Norway. The claim is that the very existence of sex work is a result of male dominance, and that sex work will maintain a negative attitude towards women”. (S-I-O.dk)
• Until Sweden banned purchasing of sex in 1999 the buying and selling of sexual services was legally tolerated, while pimping and procuring were illegal in the Nordic countries. 
• In the beginning, the Swedish law of 1999 didn’t get support from the neighbouring Nordic countries, however the will to criminalize prostitution has increased radically since the middle of 2000. 
• Norway and Iceland have adopted the so-called “Swedish model” and criminalized purchase of sexual services, though not the sale. Until 2007 it was illegal to sell sex in Iceland.
• Finland has not outlawed purchasing of sexual services as such. The 2006 law criminalizes a special category of sex purchase: from trafficking victims. In addition Finland has banned prostitution in public places under the 2003 Public Order Act. 
• Denmark decriminalized the selling of sex in 1999 but are currently discussing outlawing the buying of sexual services.

Fear of the foreign 

• The criminalization debate in the Nordic countries has included many different aspects and concerns. Yet the idea that the ban sends signals to men that society does not accept the buying of sex has been the public narrative.  
• But even though Swedish politicians have launched the Swedish law of 1999 as a result of, and measure for gender equality, it is difficult to separate the changed face of Nordic prostitution policy from the “fear of the foreign” and the need for controlling unwanted migration.  
• According to the article “Sweden’s law on prostitution: Feminism, drugs and the foreign threat” by Arthur Gould, developments in neighboring European countries and the fear of foreign sex workers with “life threatening diseases” was seen as a potential threat and played a central part of the campaign to criminalize prostitution in Sweden.
• Also the public opinion in Norway changed radically from a critical to a supportive stance for the so-called Swedish model when black streetwalkers entered the streets of Norwegian cities. Several national politicians expressed the fear of the country “flooded by foreign whores and criminals”.
• According to the Norwegian government the goal of banning the purchasing of sex is a part of a broader, anti-trafficking measure: Fighting international trafficking in humans. However, the public opinion was more concerned about an increased number of black women and criminals in the streets and decline of moral order than saving trafficking victims. 
• The fear of migrant prostitution on a rise and out of control and the desire to make human trafficking and thus organized crime as a problem and main object for crime control has played also played an important part of the Finish and Icelandic prostitution policy reform.  

Attitudes

• The research program Prostitution in the Nordic region has pointed out a difference in the attitudes towards prostitution that has changed from considering prostitution as a social problem to an increasing extent of considering prostitution as a disturbance of social and moral order. 
• The Nordic research program also concludes that social measure is receiving less attention now than before, where prostitution has been regarded as a social problem that has to be dealt with through the social welfare system, rather than the criminal justice system.
• However, traditionally it has been cross-national differences in the social centers approach to prostitution with a dominated abolitionist stance in Sweden and Denmark, while Finland and Norway has been dominated by a harm-reduction approach.
• The harm-reduction approach doesn’t only mean providing social and health care. An equally important aim is to respect sex workers and their rights to self-determination and choice.  
• In Sweden, sex workers are defined as “exploited” and the Swedish policy is based on zero tolerance towards prostitution, regarding HIV/STI prevention as a measure that could facilitate criminal activities. The goal of the social centers is to help women out of prostitution. 
• To quote the Swedish governmental inquirer Anna Skarheds public statement: “We don’t work with harm reduction in Sweden. Because that’s not the way Sweden looks upon this. We see it as a ban on prostitution: there should be no prostitution”. 
• Nevertheless the social center in Malmoe approach is based upon a harm reduction view.  
• Norwegian attempts are made to combine the legislation with harm reduction-programs directed towards sex workers. However the link made between organized crime and prostitution has legitimized police raid directed at sex workers on the indoor market to combat pimping and trafficking. Sex workers are evicted from apartments, massage parlours, expelled or denied access in hotels and many female sex workers are banned from hotel chains. 
• The main problem for all the Nordic countries is the dominant position of the crime discourse at the expenses of health and social measures in the political approach to sex work. 
• The Nordic prostitution policy reform also maintains and reinforces the invisibility and exclusion of other forms of prostitution such as transgender, male and lesbian sex workers.

Lessons learned

• The prostitution policy reform in the Nordic countries has, especially in Sweden, resulted in a disregard of an evidence-based approach towards HIV/STI-prevention. The protection of sex workers health has been undermined by the wish to protect society from prostitution, and in Sweden sex workers are no longer considered a risk-group for HIV/STIs. Recent research shows that sex workers in Sweden and Finland often receive discriminatory treatment by healthcare providers.
• According to the Finish sex workers organization SALLI, the government’s concern about trafficking has affected the harm reduction idea, and dealing out condoms and lube is now regarded as encouraging prostitution and non-positive because it does not challenge the “trafficking problem”.
• In Norway, harm reduction and health perspectives act as a foundation for different services targeting sex workers. Nevertheless health issues and how criminalization creates barriers for obtaining health care among sex workers was not discussed prior to the ban of purchasing sex. 
• The attempts to combine zero tolerance with harm reduction measures have, since the end of the 1990’s, been a part of Norwegian approach to drug policy. Lessons learned are that both crime and substance abuse-control dominates and influence the harm reduction work among drug users. 
• Since the law came into force in January 2009, the government has been more concerned about limiting the scope of the market than how the ban has affected sex workers' living and working conditions.
• In Norway it’s not only the ban on buying sex that has affected sex workers' working conditions. A more restrictive and repressive control of the indoor market, along with the ban on the purchase of sexual services, has led to a radical reorganization of the market as well as a more negative attitude to social assistance and health workers among sex workers. Condoms and lube is used as evidence of prostitution and many are reluctant to have condoms, lube or anything else that could be associated with sex sale available. 

Needs and challenging 

• Being a sex worker may have many consequences for a person’s health, both of psychological and physiological nature. It is therefore important to recognize the health needs among sex workers as well as different forms of sex work, such as men selling sex to men, transgender sex workers and so on.
• Contemporary prostitution is transnational, which means that both selling and buying of sex happens across borders. The differences between the sex worker’s circumstances such as living conditions, legal status and access to
• Network whether being migrant or local sex worker, female, male sex worker or transgender sex worker, are enormous.  
• Sex workers organizations, together with other stakeholders, are fighting to put health and human rights in focus again. It’s from our point of view crucial to address the question of how the ban on punters is affecting sex workers health and rights as well as loss of control over working condtions and life situation.  
• A challenging task as the political idea is that resources to HIV/STI prevention will not be necessary, as the legislation will eliminate prostitution. 
• Another challenge is to address how the repressive regulatory regime affecting the sex workers' working conditions and control over their own working situations.  

Sex worker’s rights organizations in the Nordic countries: 

• Advocates health, rights and safety for sex workers
• Promote and provide information about safe sex 
• Provide sex workers with condoms and lubrication.
• Provide legal advice and help
• Oppose all forms of oppression, stigmatization, discrimination and social exclusion of female, male and transgender sex workers  
• Oppose all forms of criminalization and regulatory regimes directed towards sex workers  
• Demand workers rights for sex workers, and to be heard in political matters concerning sex work

ROSE ALLIANCE
SIO
SALLI
PION