PRESS RELEASE from the Women’s Front of Norway

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

agnetest@online.no tornusta@online.no