The 20nd of June the Pro Senter, a national competence centre
on prostitution, released a report on violence against women in prostitution.
The following is the
press release from the Women’s Front of Norway about the report. The press
release was sent to Norwegian media. But due to many requests from abroad, we
have now translated the press release.
PRESS
RELEASE
The Pro Senter’s report on the law against
buying of sex has reached the front-page of the tabloids in Norway and abroad.
The tabloid Dagbladet, Oslo, says that violence against women in prostitution
has increased after the law against the buying of sex was passed. The city
councillor in Oslo has stated to the press that she wants the law the law to be
abolished, due to this report.
The Women’s Front
reacts strongly against the city councillor who wants to make it legal for men
to buy sex. The city councillor should know that men’s violence against women in
prostitution is an integral part of the misogyny they perpetrate by buying
women.
Men’s violence against
women in prostitution has always been widespread regardless if prostitution has
been criminalized or legalized. We have had the law against buying of sex for
three years. Criminalizing of buyers is one of several means, and the law in it
self is no magic wand. Men’s violence against women in prostitution cannot be
abolished by magic; we demand more action, among other things increased action
from the police.
The city councillor
cannot trust the report from the Pro
Senter. The Pro Senter has admitted that the statistical foundation of the
report is very questionable. The leader of the Pro Senter, Bjørg Norli, has admitted
that the statistical material in the report do not give any foundation for
claiming that violence has increased; on the contrary it is possible that the
opposite is correct; violence may have decreased. The Swedish law against buying
of sex was evaluated after ten years 1999 – 2010, this evaluation does not show
any increase in violence against women in prostitution.
The report, with its
faulty statement on increased violence against women in prostitution and the
conclusion of the city councillor to abolish the law, have already reached
international media. The Women’s Front has received questions from several
organisations working on the issue of having a similar law passed in their
respective countries. In France the work has reached the stage where a proposal
for a law is made and the political parties agree. When the French media now
writes about the report and the city councillor’s comments they give a
completely wrong picture of the actual situation in Norway after the law was
passed. The fact that the Pro Senter
has been criticised for it’s report on violence on women in prostitution and has
admitted the faulty conclusion has not reached the media abroad in a similar
way.
To remind us all; the
law against the buying of sex makes men responsible for creating and increasing
a demand whereby more women will be prostituted. To change this is not done in
three years.
Agnete Strøm
Torill Nustad
The
Women’s Front
