Norway to criminalize purchase of sex – abroad as well
The minister of justice in Norway has proposed criminalizing the purchase of sexual services. The law proposes imposing fines and up to six months in jail for anyone convicted of paying a prostitute for sex. The law is in line with a “Sex Purchase Law” passed by neighboring Sweden in 1999, which has been the subject of intense interest in Europe and elsewhere.
Justice Minister Knut Storberget said in presenting the proposed law: “People are not a commodity and criminalizing the purchase of sex would make it less attractive for human traffickers to look to Norway.”
I am not sure I like the law. I don’t really know how smart it is to criminalize people for buying sex. But at least that part of the law I respect. The part I have strong objections to, is the part that says that the law should apply to Norwegians visiting other countries as well. This is strange as a legal principle.
I mean, if a Norwegian drive a car at 160 km/hour on a German highway, this is legal in Germany but illegal in Norway. But people do not get punished for it when they return home to Norway. Same for smoking cannabis in Amsterdam. And so on. But now the government proposes that when a Norwegian does something in a foreign country that is legal in that country, he is to be punished when he returns home?
And, in addition to the very strange legal principle involved, there is also the almost impossible situation with respect to implementation. Are Dutch policemen supposed to look out for Norwegians buying sex, when that purchase is legal in the Netherlands? And the same in other countries, of course.
So, seems to me, the only people who will be punished for this are the ones admitting to have done it – some honest guys – and people who are informed about by friends that can’t be trusted or enemies, and then some few others more or less randomly.
To me it seems strange and not very smart to put in place a law that punishes the honest and rewards informers. Is that how the socialist government in Norway wants Norway to become?
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April 18th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
You (granted, as most people), are missing the scope of the Norwegian Criminal Code: Already will acts prepetrade abroad be punished in Norway, f.eks. if you’re violent towards your wife on holiday. You don’t have to be tried in, say, Spain.
However, they’ve seen that prostitution are legal in most of the world, and thus chosen to criminalise it in the rest of the world too. Not only are women unable to make decisions regarding their own body, most countries are too! Talk about arrogance…
April 18th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Well, it is stupid from the point of view of implementation. If I beat my wife abroad (I don’t have one, but still – LOL), I assume she could bring charges against me back in Norway (if I lived there – LOL). But who is to bring charges in Norway if I buy a prostitute in Spain (not that I do)?
So, from an implementation point of view, and thus also a fairness point of view, it is more or less insane, in addition to it being, as you say, arrogant (or more likiely, plain stupid).
April 18th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
[...] Continue Reading [...]
June 14th, 2008 at 5:27 am
This is an outrageous law. Not the part about prosecuting people for their activities abroad, but the self-righteous crap about this preventing “trafficking”.
Firstly, the state has no right to tell consenting adults why then can or cannot have sex, whether it is for love, comfort, security, fun or even money. Far better to spend the time and resources on actually helping women trapped in bad circumstances.
Secondly. What is “trafficking”? The, in my view, extremist lobby groups pushing this idea have successfully managed to confuse this term with “sex-slave”, so now it has become a substitute for that term. Clearly this is not the case, most people, including women, who are “trafficked” not only want to be, but pay large sums to be smuggled across borders and there is little evidence that a majority of them are then forced into sexual slavery.
And finally the whole myth of trafficking has been deliberately blown out of all proportion to reality, partly by politicians who want more power, lobby groups whose power, influence and income depend on the perceived size of the problem and the media who love the salacious stories of “thousands of sex-slaves”. We have seen social services, lobby groups and the police declare that any foreign prostitute is “trafficked”, a sex-slave”, when that is not true. This stems from the extreme mindset which says no woman would choose to be a prostitute, so all prostitutes must be coerced.
Operation pentameter was a internationally coordinated police operation targeted at finding and freeing sex-slaves. In all the found 88 women in 22 countries, that is an average of 4 per country. During the world cup in Germany, the U.N. and several NGOs estimated that 50,000 women would be “trafficked” into Germany to service the visiting fans. The U.N. set up a task force with the German police and though they found plenty of foreign prostitutes they could only find 5 who were working against their will.
As for this law in Sweden, the government there are in denial, this law has made life much worse for the most vulnerable women. Those women who HAD to go out on the streets to work, still HAVE to do this, but now they must compete more for fewer clients, charge less, do things they would not otherwise have done and are less careful about avoiding dangerous situations.
Perhaps some of those proposing this law have good intentions, but they will just make matters worse. Why is the first choice of fools to ban and prohibit rather than to hold out an helping hand?
http://www.regjeringen.no/…/2004/0034/ddd/pdfv/232216-purchasing_sexual_services_in_sweden_and_the_nederlands.pdf -
June 24th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
[...] it for Norwegian traveling abroad as well – even if it is legal in the country they go to!!http://www.european-viewpoint.com/nekkid-blogger/norway-to-criminalize-purchase-of-sex-abroad-as-wel…Norway Travel Notes: Norway Travel Guide TravelNotes.orgNorway travel Notes – norway travel and [...]