Movement for the Abolition of Prostitution

What is the Nordic Model?

The Nordic Model (sometimes known as the Sex Buyer Law, and the Swedish, Abolitionist, Survivor or Equality Model) is an approach to prostitution that has been adopted in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Canada, France, Ireland and Israel. It has several elements:

1. Decriminalisation of selling sex acts

Prostitution is inherently violent. Women should not be criminalised for the exploitation and abuse they endure.

2. Buying sex acts becomes a criminal offence

Buying human beings for sex is harmful, exploitative and can never be safe. We need to reduce the demand that drives sex trafficking.

3. Support and exit services

High quality, non-judgemental services to support those in prostitution and help them build a new life outside it, including: access to safe affordable housing; training and further education; child care; legal, debt and benefit advice; emotional and psychological support.

A holistic approach

A public information campaign; training for police and CPS; tackling the inequality and poverty that drive people into prostitution; effective laws against pimping and sex trafficking, with penalties that reflect the enormous damage they cause. Read more >>

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Infographic explaining what decriminalising sex work means in practice, along with background information and full references.

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Jenna reflects on a recent interview with Russell Brand and the importance of telling the truth about the prostitution industry.

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Decriminalising “sex work” may sound sensible until you think more deeply about what it means in practice. This article explains why.

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Prostitution survivor, Jenna, responds to reports that Labour MP Samantha Niblett is campaigning to promote sex toys under the guise of sex education.

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Reflections on the ethical failure of telling kids to respect others while our culture soaks them in violent porn and glamorises the brutal prostitution system.

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The parallels, the failure of the authorities & how treating females as commodities that men can trade and abuse with impunity reveals connections with the wider sex trade.

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Prostitution Survivors’ Testimony

Prostitution Survivors’ Testimony

Anna’s Story

This is an edited transcript of a podcast, in which Anna talks about being groomed into prostitution as a teenager in 1989 and pimped on the streets of Leeds over the next 11 years.

The invisible line between “independent escort” and trafficking victim

Hello I’m Esther. I’m the policy adviser at Nordic Model Now! and a survivor of pornography and prostitution. I’ve also experienced domestic abuse and coercive control. The dynamics are very similar, particularly isolation from others and the multi-faceted challenges you experience or fear, often with good reason, will happen if you try to exit without support.

What’s your body count?

If you’ve never sold sex then there’s probably a good chance that you know the answer to the question, what’s your body count? When strangers pay to use your body, it quickly feels like that body is not your own. When that happens it’s better not to know the number. To escape the reality of it.

Mia De Faoite

Mia de Faoite is an activist and survivor of prostitution. She campaigned tirelessly for the introduction of the Nordic Model law in the Republic of Ireland. (The photo shows her holding a copy of the Act that implemented it.)

On the 27th March 2017, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 was enacted [in the Republic of Ireland].  []

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