Role model Sweden
SPD women demand punishment of clients
3/20/2023 4:24 am
20 years ago, the Prostitution Act came into force in Germany, with the aim of improving the situation of sex workers. The SPD politician Maria Noichl considers the initiative to have failed. She advocates punishment of clients, as is already practiced in Sweden.
The women’s organization of the SPD has spoken out in favor of punishing clients in Germany as well. “The prostitution law has failed,” said the chairwoman of the working group of social democratic women, Maria Noichl, of the “Rheinische Post” with regard to the law that came into force in 2002, with which the then red-green coalition wanted to improve the legal and social situation of prostitutes .
With liberalization, the government at the time wanted to get women who worked in prostitution out of the sleazy corner of the milieu and help them get social security, said Noichl. “But now the opposite has happened. Liberalization has turned us into a country that sucks up everyone who makes money from prostitution like a sponge.” It is legal to sell women’s bodies, but the deep misery of women has remained. “I would like Germany to have the Nordic model that punishes clients,” she said.
The so-called Nordic model provides that only the person who pays money for sex can be held criminally responsible. It is practiced in Sweden, for example, where, in addition to the ban on buying sex, it also provides for sex education for young people, the decriminalization of prostitutes and exit programs. Prostitution has been legal in Germany for a long time. On the other hand, anyone who knowingly uses the services of a forced prostitute has been liable to prosecution since 2016.
As an MEP, Noichl is currently working on a directive to combat violence. Prostitution should also be classified as violence throughout Europe. “It is the job of the EU to make it clear who is the perpetrator and who is the victim,” Noichl told the newspaper.