Why would a human rights organization such as Amnesty International propose to legalize the buying of sex? An opinion piece on CNN's website by Robin Morgan shares research into the situation of sex workers and how criminalization of johns and pimps has been chosen by several Nordic countries and France. It has also been recommended by the European parliament, and is pending in the parliaments of Ireland, Belgium, Canada and Scotland. The presentation was given at a winter session of the Nordic Summer University on 15 March 2014 at Lysebu in Oslo, Norway.

1. Why legalize buying of sex?
#QuestionsforAmnesty
Gry Tina Tinde, Nordic Summer University
Winter session, Oslo, 15 March 2014

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4. Debating virtually

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O What if the world's most distinguished
human rights organization decided to
condone pimping? Unthinkable, right? But
that's what happened when Amnesty
International put forth a document calling
for the legalization of prostitution.

7. h
O Robin Morgan, activist and author of 22
books, hosts the radio show/podcast
”Women’s Media Center Live with Robin
Morgan”WMCLive.com and iTunes

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O STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
O Amnesty International put forth a document
calling for the legalization of prostitution
O Robin Morgan: Prostitution is selling and
buying human beings, which amounts to
slavery
O Morgan: Prostituted women have high rates
of PTSD, many are child abuse survivors

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O The numbers of prostituted women who suffer
post-traumatic stress disorder are in the same
range as combat veterans and refugees from
state sponsored torture.
O As the survivors succinctly depict it: $ Does Not
= Consent.
O Robin Morgan says we should criminalize
buyers. Amnesty should reject decriminalization
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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In her 8 March 2024 article, Robin Morgan says:
O For 50 years, the global women's movement
has been fighting the selling and buying of
human beings, which has a name: slavery.
O For decades, feminists called for criminalizing
the buyers while decriminalizing the women they
buy; offering women support services ranging
from safe harbor through drug rehabilitation to
education and skills training; and enforcing laws
that criminalize pimps, traffickers and brothel
owners.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O The response was that it would never work
(and feminists were crazy, sex-hating
Puritans).
O The sex industry fought back, both openly --
It's the "oldest profession, always been with
us”
O It represents "sexual liberation" -- and
covertly, through funding happy-hooker-type
groups, rebranding prostitution as "sex work
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O The sex industry praises it as a career
choice indistinguishable from any other.
O Have you ever met an 8-year-old who said,
"Ooh, I wanna grow up to be a hooker"?
O There is, as Kathleen Barry pointed out in
her classic, "The Prostitution of Sexuality," a
single interrelated mega-enterprise of sexual
exploitation.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O Prostituted women are also
disproportionately survivors of child sexual
and physical abuse, rape and battery,
kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon,
and addiction to drugs and/or alcohol.
O Vednita Carter, a survivor activist, has noted
that every prostituted woman has been
forced, whether or not she seems to "choose
willingly."
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O Racism, violence and poverty are ever
present forms of coercion in the sex
industry; consequently, poor women and
women of color have a disproportionately
large presence.
O We're only now discovering the enormous
impact of prostitution on women in native
communities.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O We know the trajectory of, say, a young
runaway from an abusive home: First, the
offer of work in "films." Then, the
"temporary" turning of a trick or two, which
becomes a permanent deployment in
prostitution. Finally, she finds herself being
moved around as a trafficked commodity.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O Despite this reality, the phrase "sex work"
became fashionable among some well-
meaning people who assumed that this term
meant respect for the women involved --
when actually it signifies approval for the
context in which such women were trying to
stay barely alive, or from which they were
trying to escape.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O Nevertheless, progress seemed possible.
Sweden, Norway, and Iceland passed
legislation holding customers responsible for
buying human beings for sex, criminalizing
the buyers and offering the women support
programs.
O This is known as the Nordic Model.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O The French parliament voted in Dec 2013 to
follow Sweden's model; similar laws are
pending in the parliaments of Belgium,
Ireland, Scotland and Canada, and the
European Parliament favored it with a
strongly affirmative vote on February 24,
2014.
O See, the model works.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O Since Sweden began enforcement, street
prostitution has been reduced almost by half
and trafficking has declined.
O This unglues the arguments of those who treat
trafficking as a separate issue from "sex work."
Is it less enslaving to be bought in your own
country rather than another?
O Contrarily, countries with legalized prostitution
have greater inflows of human trafficking,
according to a study published in ScienceDirect.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O Then, just when it seemed sanity was
winning, the respected human rights
organization Amnesty International appears
to have come out on the side of the sex
industry.
O An Amnesty International document,
"Decriminalization of Sex Work," argues that
pimps and johns should be "free from
government interference" and allowed to
"exercise their autonomy."
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O It says governments have an obligation to
establish an environment where pimps can
operate freely to engage prostituted people; to
do otherwise "threatens the rights to health,
nondiscrimination, equality, privacy, and security
of persons."
O The document also insults the disability
community by claiming that men with disabilities
require access to prostituted women to further
their sense of "life enjoyment and dignity."
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O Amnesty International has argued that the
document is a draft and is in the discussion
stage.
O But Amnesty International representatives
appeared at the Northern Ireland Assembly
in January 2014, lobbying to strike down
proposed legislation that would criminalize
customers for buying prostituted women.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O What's even more stunning is that a former member
of Amnesty, is proudly claiming credit for having first
raised the issue of legalizing pimps and brothel
owners at the organization, which he says resulted in
the policy recommendation.
O A campaigner for the International Union of Sex
Workers who and calls himself a "sex worker", he and
his partner run a major escort service. Amnesty,
however, denies his involvement in the draft
document, saying he had "zero input." Amnesty came
to this on its own, then? Hard to know which is worse.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O It took decades for the global women's
movement to convince Amnesty that human
rights were not reserved for male people.
Now, Amnesty International London has set
things back by considering a shocking
violation of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O But this time, the "crazy, puritanical
feminists" can't be dismissed; we're backed
by national governments who've proved our
point—and saved women's lives. This time
survivors must be heard.
From Robin Morgan’s
8 March 2014 CNN article

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O The Amnesty paper starts like this:
O "Amnesty International is opposed to the
criminalization or punishment of activities
related to the buying or selling of consensual sex
between adults. Amnesty International believes
that seeking, buying, selling and soliciting paid
sex are acts protected from state interference as
long as there is no coercion, threats or violence
associated with those acts."

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O Why doesn’t Amnesty’s paper separate the
sellers of sex from the buyers, like the
Nordic Model does by criminalizing only the
buyers?
O It is by criminalizing the buyers that
Sweden, Norway and other countries have
been able to reduce prostitution and at the
same time support the sex workers via
health, legal and employment services.

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SWERF = sex work exclusionary radical feminist

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O "The new WHO guidelines recommend that countries
work towards decriminalization of sex work and urge
countries to improve sex workers’ access health
services. They also outline a set of interventions to
empower sex workers and emphasize that correct
and consistent condom use can reduce transmission
between female, male and transgender sex workers
and their clients.
O What WHO says is that people who are prostituted
should not be criminalized. WHO does not propose to
decriminalize buyers of sexual services. The Nordic
Model is in line with WHO guidelines.

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