The Scottish Gov recently put out a consultation on reducing violence against sex workers and ‘challenging men’s demand for prostitution.’ It seemed the Gov believed that following the ‘Nordic Model’ (criminalisation of clients) would achieve this. However, the Nordic Model has been heavily criticised for INCREASING violence against sex workers. Due to continued criminalisation, sex workers are forced to work in isolated areas and often times, alone putting them at more risk of violence. As well as this, ‘reducing demand’ for prostitution means sex workers are pressured into more unsafe and risky situations as they are more in need of clients. This is noted in the consultation under the covid section as it says as demand decreased, sex workers were forced into riskier more dangerous conditions. In Northern Ireland, implementation of the Nordic Model has failed to keep sex workers safe. 56.7% of sex workers surveyed felt that the law had made sex work more dangerous, while 29.1% felt that it had made no difference to their safety. I ask the committee to commit to engaging with sex workers or sex worker led organisations (such as Scotpep) on this issue and to implement the full decriminalisation of sex work.
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