Written statement submitted by the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status
[United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Council; May 17, 2013]
"The Special Rapporteur notes that international bodies have called for more research on the dimensions of demand that impact on the rights of trafficked persons, migrants and other affected groups. We would suggest that future research on demand examine the impact of demand-based approaches that criminalise sex workers’ clients (such as the Swedish model) and the effect of this on anti-trafficking efforts. The Special Rapporteur notes that a number of States have criminalised sex workers’ clients in an effort to address demand. However, there is a growing body of research that supports sex workers’ argument that the criminalisation of clients has not reduced trafficking or sex work, but has increased sex workers’ vulnerability to violence, harmed HIV responses, and infringed on sex workers’ rights."
Sex Work and the Law: The Case for Decriminalization
[The World Aids Campaign; 2010]
“In reality, however, the law has had entirely predictable and deeply negative consequences for street prostitutes, who by all accounts do not number more than 650 to 1,000 in the entire country. These consequences include increased police harassment; reduced power to choose between clients, since they have become scarcer (hence prostitutes tend to find themselves with precisely the violent and unstable clients they would have avoided before); and the immediate deportation of non-Swedish sex workers discovered in the company of men arrested for purchasing sex. Despite these outcomes, the law is touted by government representatives as a beacon of hope in what they term “the fight against prostitution ...”.