Buying sex illegal in Norway

2007-04-23 10:19

Oslo - Norway's ruling Labour Party on Sunday voted to ban the purchase of sex in a bid to stop prostitution by targeting those who buy it rather than those who sell it, officials said.

The decision by the Labour Party's congress puts Norway on course to join its Scandinavian neighbour Sweden in adopting such a policy. Sweden introduced a similar ban in 1999.

Prostitution is allowed in Norway, although procuring it, commonly known as "pimping", is illegal.

Street prostitution in the capital, Oslo, has become increasingly visible and aggressive in the past few years, provoking calls for a ban.

Labour also has support from its coalition partners, the Socialist Left and Centre parties. They hold a combined 87 of parliament's 169 seats and will also be backed by the opposition Christian People's Party, which first proposed the ban.

"A majority of parties in parliament wants a ban on buying sexual services," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, told a news conference. "We are going to implement it."

The right-wing opposition Progress Party is opposed to the ban, as is the opposition Liberal Party. The opposition Conservative Party has taken a wait-and-see attitude.

The congress of the Labour Party, which heads the three-party centre-left government, was itself was sharply divided, with 184 of 300 delegates voting for the ban.

Proponents say banning the purchase of sex will curb prostitution without penalising the prostitutes, many of whom are poor, young foreign women often forced into the trade.

Opponents say it will only drive prostitution underground and make prostitutes even more vulnerable.

"I don't think it will help the women," Karita Bekkemellem, the Labour Party's minister for children and equality affairs, and a strong advocate of women's rights, told Reuters.

- Reuters