af Erla Sigurðardóttir
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| Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir. Fra: http://www.althingi.is |
Actress Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir (the Left-Green Movement) was a relatively new Member of Parliament in March 2000 when she
proposed a bill against gendered violence, including the buying of sex. At that point Sweden was the first country in the
world to have criminalised the purchase of sex, but Kolbrún wants to thank a grassroots organisation – the Stígamót Crisis
Centre – for their thorough preparatory work which enabled her to present her proposition. The proposition was not passed
at that first attempt, but Kolbrún did not give in. For nine years she fought for her idea and managed to channel the proposition
through assemblies and committees, until it was eventually passed as a law only a week before the parliamentary election on
24 April 2009.
When Kolbrún first presented her proposition on 7 March 2000, sex phone lines, sex equipment shops and erotic massage parlours
had begun springing up like mushrooms in Iceland, not to mention the strip-tease clubs that had first appeared in 1995. At
that time, her small left-wing party could not pass the proposition on its own, so she chose to look for support outside of
the party. In 2004, a new bill was proposed, supported by all female Members of Parliament, except those of the Conservative
Party. Hoping to achieve greater support she agreed to the issue being prepared for presentation by a working group cutting
across party lines, appointed by the then Minister of Justice, Björn Bjarnason (Conservatives) The group studied, for example,
Swedish experiences and Norwegian research within the area without, however, managing to reach a consensus.
In 2007, the Minister of Justice proposed a bill which included, among other things, the decriminalisation of prostitutes.
Kolbrún intended to suggest an amendment that would have forbidden the purchase of sex, but the Minister of Justice strongly
advised her to withdraw her proposed amendment; otherwise the Minister would withdraw the whole proposition. A compromise
was reached, where the suggested amendment was removed and the Minister extend the period of limitation for sex-related crimes.
A further two years was to pass before a new proposition for prohibiting the purchase of sex was presented in the Alþingi.
In the meantime, Kolbrún had become Minister of the Environment in a provisional government appointed in February 2009. Therefore
it was her party colleague Atli Gíslason, who presented the proposal, and now a majority (the Left-Green Movement, the Social
Democrats, the Progressive Party) supported the bill, while the Liberals and the Conservatives either voted against it or
failed to vote at all.
After the election on 24 April 2009, Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir left both the Ministry and Alþingi, but to her great satisfaction
she can now note that nine years of struggle have borne fruit. But how does this amendment of the criminal code benefit prostitutes?
“The law”, Kolbrún emphasizes, “does not work in isolation. It is first and foremost an important admission that prostitution
is defined as gendered violence. In addition a change of attitudes is needed, and this can be achieved by, for example, teaching
gender equality in schools.”
But how are the victims of prostitution to be helped, regardless of whether they are Icelandic or foreign victims of trafficking?
How is Iceland in its current crisis to live up to the grand words of the action plan against human trafficking of the Ministry
of Social Affairs, approved a month before the election? Kolbrún admits that financial negotiations are difficult in times
of recession, but thinks that a government that acknowledges gender equality certainly will do its utmost to secure social
services for prostitution victims.
