Sweden: Legalization of prostitution condemned in Germany

Off Our Backs, Nov/Dec 2002

Europe

The German parliament passed a law last December that gave prostitutes legal recognition of their activity, with social and labor rights. Women who offer sexual services can legally require payment in return. They are also free to choose their clients and their level of payment, and parliament has abolished the official characterization of prostitution as "immoral." Prostitutes also have the right to unemployment benefits, sick pay and a pension, according to the law. The running of a brothel is no longer outlawed, but it is still illegal to live off the earnings of a prostitute.

Swedish Gender Equality Minister Margareta Winberg criticized Germany for legalizing prostitution, arguing that it only worsens the situation for prostitutes. "Our countries have different views on the matter. I think it is cynical that the government, through tax income, makes money off of brothels," Winberg told a European experts' seminar on the sex trade, according to Swedish news agency TT. "You cannot compare a woman's body to, for example, a shoelace, that can be bought wherever," she said.

Swedish legislation since 1999 prohibits the purchase of sexual services, but does not criminalize the act of selling such services. "Without men who believe they have the right to buy these women's bodies, there would be no sex trade," Winberg said.

-info from Aviva.org