Our Development Manager, Angela, and Secretary, Karen, had the privilege yesterday of addressing MSPs and their staff at a lunchtime function at the Parliament. This joint event with Evangelical Alliance Scotland and CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) presented the Christian case for supporting the ‘Nordic model’ of ending prostitution. It was sponsored by Rhoda Grant MSP.
The Nordic model, or end-demand model, is a system of prosecuting those who purchase sex (the ones with all the power) and not those who sell (the powerless), combined with targeted support to help women exit prostitution and rebuild their lives. It’s worked well in Sweden and Norway, hence the name! The current situation in Scotland is that both selling and buying sex are legal, although many women in prostitution fall foul of laws banning soliciting or working in brothels.
Ash Regan MSP, who was present at the meeting, recently ran a consultation on the Nordic Model, aiming to make this a priority for the Scottish Goverment. Restore submitted a positive response to the consultation.
The reason this issue matters so much to Restore is not just that paying for access to a woman’s body is inherently exploitative (in fact, the Scottish Government considers prostitution a form of violence against women and girls!) but it also enables trafficking. Where there is demand for buying sex, sex traffickers will move in. In countries that have implemented the Nordic Model, sex trafficking has fallen.
There was excellent engagement from MSPs and guests at the meeting, with lots of good questions, and we hope that this will help to move the issue up the agenda and eventually lead to a reduction in sexual exploitation and trafficking in Scotland!
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