New Zealand decriminalised sex work in 2003 with verifiable success. Over 90% of sex workers said they had additional employment, legal, health and safety rights. 64.8% found it easier to refuse clients and 70% said they were more likely to report incidents of violence to the police.
For a summary of the Prostitution Reform Act please see here.
WHEN the Netherlands legalised brothels eight years ago, the mood was upbeat. Politicians thought they were well on the way to solving one of the world’s perpetual policy dilemmas: how to stop all the bad things that are associated with the sex trade (coercion, violence, infectious diseases) while putting a proper, and realistic, limit to […]
Decriminalise prostitution – Five years ago, New Zealand stopped arresting sex workers. Their lives have improved and the UK should now adopt the same approachCatherine Healy What can the UK learn from New Zealand’s approach to sex workers? Quite a lot, actually. On Wednesday June 25, sex workers and brothel operators mingled in parliament with a […]
PRESS RELEASE From SAFETY FIRST – A coalition to decriminalise sex work and prioritise safety. Wednesday 25 June 2008: New Zealand marks five years of successful decriminalisation of prostitution. On the fifth anniversary of the introduction of the New Zealand Prostitution Reform Act (PRA), the NZ government has published a detailed evaluation report which confirms the positive […]
The Suffolk Murders of 2006 have yet again highlighted the problem of how to deal with ‘the oldest profession’. The government’s Criminal Justice & Immigration Bill is again reviewing the law on prostitution, but some say it doesn’t go far enough.The Criminal Justice & Immigration Bill is passing through the Houses of Parliament and it […]
Experts from New Zealand and Sweden With the debate on prostitution raging in the press, and given the opportunity to hear experts from New Zealand and Sweden, it was no surprise that the meeting in Committee Room 10 of the House of Commons was packed to the rafters. 200 people were joined by 10 Peers […]