When people become a commodity
Globalisation has made a huge impact on the Nordic market for sexual services. More women from abroad are now active in the Nordic market, and the politicians are struggling to keep legislation up-to-date and cut down on prostitution and human trafficking. Read more
Prostitution legislation: Will they go the same way?
In just a few years, the body of legislation on prostitution in the Nordic countries has undergone an epoch-making development and become more uniform. The reason for this is the increase in trafficking in humans in the region. Nevertheless, there is not total agreement on the best way to go forward. Read more
Closeness and control for sale
The man who buys sex could be described as a wanted character in prostitution debates, he belongs to a group that is talked about but seldom talked to. The website sexhandel.no (sextrade) is an initiative that enables customers themselves to describe their own thoughts about buying sex. Read more
Social measures: Men on the periphery
An increasing number of foreign prostitutes come to the Nordic countries. This changes the focus of social measures and affects specific groups of national prostitutes, among others, men, who have ended up forming ‘the blind spot’. Read more
What do numbers tell us?
How much prostitution is there in the Nordic countries?
This is a question many would like to know the answer of. Read more
Mobilising public opinion
The population in most of the Nordic countries has, during the last few years, taken an increasingly critical attitude towards prostitution. The media, politicians and interest groups have influenced the attitudes of people. Read more
Human trafficking: Demands for better protection
The fight against human trafficking is a very topical
and hot theme in the Nordic social debate. Often the
issue of prostitution is reduced to being only a question
of trafficking in humans. Read more
Prostitution – a Point of Disagreement in the Nordic Countries
Since 1999, it has been illegal in Sweden to buy sexual services, and the Norwegian Government now proposes to introduce a similar law. However, there is insufficient knowledge about the extent of prostitution and about what legislation and which measures are most effective. NIKK is therefore carrying out a project on prostitution, the aim of which is to provide the Nordic governments with a better basis of information. Read more
The Nordic countries vs. Europe
Although there are differences between the Nordic countries as to their views on prostitution, the differences between them and the rest of Europe are even greater. The Nordic countries all want to limit prostitution, while several other European countries regard prostitution as a legitimate occupation. Read more
Interview
Why do Men Buy Sex?
During the spring of 2002 he has appeared almost weekly in the Swedish media, where, with patient didacticism he has defended a Swedish law which aims at regulating the sex trade. Sven-Axel Månsson, Professor of Social Work at Gothenburg University in Sweden has been fighting for this law for over 20 years. Read more
The Palermo Protocol
In December 2000, the new United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its two supplementary Protocols were opened for signature by UN member states in Palermo, Italy. Of the 148 states present, 120 signed what is called in UN language, the mother Convention, and over 80 countries signed the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. The Trafficking Protocol recognizes the need for a combined approach that integrates effective prevention of trafficking with the prosecution of traffickers and the protection of human rights and assistance to victims of trafficking. Read more
A Vicious Circle of Abuse of Minors in the Sex Trade
In Finland the public discussion on prostitution has led to the outlawing of sexual abuse of minors in prostitution and it is an offence for a citizen to buy sex from a minor (under 18 years of age), whether in Finland or abroad. This has led to the widespread myth that child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking in children is not taking place in this country. However, it is naive to close our eyes and believe that phenomena such as sexual violence against children for purposes of prostitution do not exist in our welfare societies. The study referred to in this article suggests that the extent of sexual violence against minors in the sex trade is not adequately known or recognised as an issue within social policy in Finland. Read more
Racism in the Sex Trade in Finland
Men in Finland, like those in other western countries, can consume "exotic" sensual encounters both at home and abroad. While Finland has a very small immigrant population and tight immigration procedures, it is known that women are trafficked to Finland, mainly from Russian and the Baltic countries, for prostitution and other forms of sex trade. Read more
Victims of Trafficking - A Journey into the World of Katya and Zhenya
An approach to the problem of human trafficking in Russian society. Read more
Open Borders - Open Bodies. Russian Women as the New Image of an Old Enemy.
As the northern political border between Norway and Russia was renegotiated and dismantled during the 1990’s, other borders of a more symbolic nature were constructed. The stereotype of the Russian woman as associated with prostitution was instituted, giving rise to a need to formulate attitudes that could re-establish and maintain a more satisfactory boundary between the Norwegian nation and the former Eastern superpower. Simultaneously, the stereotype of the bachelor from Finnmark – with a strong association with buyers of sex – was established as another notion. This facilitated the re-establishment of moral communities and juxtapositions between north and south, between the centre and the periphery in Norway. Read more
When Does Legal Prostitution Become Illegal Trafficking?
- Without understanding the discussion of equality in Sweden, it is not possible to understand how the sex-purchase law came
about.
This is a claim made by Sven-Axel Månsson, Professor of Social Work at Malmö University, at a seminar on prostitution and
trafficking. Read more
How Women in Prostitution see Themselves and Explain their Motivations
Massive-scale dismissals of women from large businesses, unemployment, gender discrimination when recruiting employees to highly paid jobs, as well as the commercialisation of education and health care have resulted in a feminisation of poverty during the recent period of economic transformation in Russia. Ousting women from the well-paid labour market has been supported by an ideology which holds that it is the “natural” fate of women to stay at home and care for the family. This renaissance of patriarchy in Russia has, naturally, affected the specificity of interpersonal relations there. In the first instance, this has resulted in a rise in the number of women specialising in the provision of sexual services to men. Read more
Between Suppression and Independence. Transnational Prostitution of Black Women in Denmark
Is it adequate to approach women who migrate to richer parts of the world in order to earn money for themselves and for their families by prostitution as victims? Are there other aspects, besides the social and psychological damages, which are important to take into consideration? Read more
Nordic-Baltic Campaign Against Trafficking in Women
-Daily I pick up leaflets at the university campus and at bus stops advertising for girls to highly paid, easy jobs abroad where no skills are required, not even fluency in English. The salaries that are being promised for these "easy" jobs can be up to six times the average salary in Estonia, says Kristiina Luht, coordinator in Estonia for a joint Nordic-Baltic information campaign to combat trafficking in women. The Nordic countries are more and more frequently the destination for young girls being trafficked for the purpose of prostitution, and many of these girls and women come from the Baltic and Eastern European countries. Read more
“You Will Be Sold Like a Doll”
“You will be sold like a doll” – warns a puppet-girl in outdoor posters currently displayed all over Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian cities. “Do not trust easy money abroad” – she urges again, appearing on TV screens. This human marionette hung from her bare skin is used as the main image in an information campaign launched to prevent trafficking in women from the Baltic States and is designed to convey the situation of a trafficked girl – manipulated, coerced, helpless and in pain. The coordinators of the campaign – the International Organization for Migration (IOM) - say that more and more women from the Baltic States find themselves in the traps laid by traffickers. Research by the IOM indicates that, besides other western European countries, the Nordic countries have recently also become a destination for trafficking of women from the Baltic region. Read more
Bodies Across Borders
Young women from the Baltic countries increasingly go to Scandinavia, where they find jobs in the sex business – at the same time, there is an increasing number of hairdressers, house wives, managing directors and other ‘ordinary’ people who have seen the financial opportunities offered by the business and therefore establish themselves as agents for sexual services. Read more
