Thursday, December 21, 2006

Sweden's Prostitution Solution



Sweden has led the way in resolve (attitude and political will) to abolish prostitution in their country.
I recently heard Gunilla Ekberg (the women who led the charge as a consultant to the government that created the laws)... and she said you really need two things to change/challenge unjust laws:

1. vision of the future (what is your vision for the future: Christian's have this one down if we buy into the way Jesus taught us to pray: YOUR KINGDOM COME)
2. understanding of oppression (for example - not all choices are equal... power structures etc...)

Based on this, Gunilla led the way for Sweden to change it's laws...

In a nut shell Sweden decided (rightly so) that prostitution is NOT A TRADE it IS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.
They made the buying of 'sex' a hate crime against women. They de-criminalized prostitution itself and provided 'exit' strategies and programs for women caught in it's trap. Sounds like a great idea!! Why don't we (Canada) just adopt the law (they have decreased the number of women working on the streets by 50% at last count)? Good question.

Here's a link on a great article that asks an important question, "Sweden's Prostitution Solution: why hasn't anyone tried this before?"

check it out (click on the URL posted at the top to read the full article).

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