Swedish prostitution law as a global model?

Sweden is one of the few countries where paying for sex is a punishable offence. The United Nations has announced plans to take a closer look at the law to determine whether Sweden can be used as a model case. The Swedish government feels vindicated in its tough stance, but researcher Susanne Dodillet expresses doubts in an article published in the Swedish daily: "This law is based neither on empirical research nor on a well thought-out philosophy. It's therefore all the more worrying that this new inquiry doesn't call the criminalisation of those who buy sex into question. ... Are we doing women a favour by classifying them as the weaker party which is unable to assume responsibility in the sex trade? ... All these paragraphs [in the law] are an expression of symbolic policies which lack an equalising impact."

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