Criminalise sex buyers but not prostitutes, women’s rights NGOs argue

Malta should adopt a Swedish model that criminalises the purchase but not the selling of sex, the Confederation of Women’s Organisations has said.

The MCWO, which represents 12 local women’s rights organisations, rejected Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s suggestion that regularising prostitution could help clamp down on sex trafficking. Indeed, it warned that it will actually increase the practice.

“We propose that Malta adopts the Nordic Model which decriminalizes all those who are prostituted and provides support services to help those who want to exit from this trade,” it said in a statement. “Yet, buying people for sex should be a criminal offence in order to reduce the demand that drives sex trafficking.”

Such a model was introduced in Sweden back in 1999, and has since been adopted in countries like Norway, Iceland, France and Canada.

Joseph Muscat on Friday called for a national discussion on the regularisation of prostitution, as well as on the legalisation of recreational marijuana.

He said that while the issue was a controversial one, and one that could cost him at the polls, Malta could no longer close its eyes to the fact that it is consistently named a country human trafficking of women takes place, especially from Eastern Europe.

“We shouldn’t let criminals abuse of people and essentially enslave them,” he argued, adding that he would be proposing public consultation of ways for the regularisation of the industry to be implemented.