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Belgium: European women's lobby: Prostitutes are victims, not criminals
Off Our Backs, Aug/Sep 2002 by Goktepe, Katherine, Brookbank, Elizabeth, Schlichter, Sarah, Wimbrow, Melissa, Et al
Europe
BRUSSELS-Building upon the only law in the world to view prostitutes as victims rather than perpetrators of a crime, the 2001 European Women's Lobby (EWL) General Assembly has adopted a motion to make buying women for sexual purposes a crime and to develop policies against pimping.
This unique law went into effect in January 1999 in Sweden and makes it a crime to buy someone for sexual purposes but does not criminalize the selling of oneself. The Swedish government has accompanied the law with social welfare services to help women get out of prostitution. More recently, Sweden showed its continued efforts with a Swedish Campaign against Prostitution and Trafficking in Women launched on May 15 as part of a larger Nordic-Baltic Campaign against Trafficking in Women.
The original Swedish law has already helped to reduce cases of prostitution and trafficking of women in Sweden. The EWL hopes to lobby for similar laws, including anti-- pimping measures and services to help women give up prostitution, to be adopted by other European countries.
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