In the midst of the holiday season on July 29 this year, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg issued a ruling of great significance for Sweden. This concerns France’s ban on purchasing sexual services, which has been in place since 2016, and as is well known, Sweden was the first country to enact a law criminalizing the purchase of “sexual services” in 1999. Several other countries have followed suit.
The background is that 261 individuals who claimed to be sex workers filed a lawsuit against the French state, arguing that the country’s prohibition on the purchase of sexual services violated their right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights. They claimed, among other things, that the ban had reduced their income and thus their ability to reject unpleasant clients. The question for the court was whether the sex purchase ban constituted an excessive intrusion into private life.
The court carefully examined all arguments and concluded that yes, sexual encounters between consenting adults fall under the protected sphere of private life; however, the state has the right to intrude upon private life if such measures are necessary and proportionate. The court found that human trafficking and prostitution are of a nature that justifies state intervention due to their harmful effects, and that countries are obliged and entitled to combat these issues through various means. It is the responsibility of local authorities and courts to make this assessment and develop appropriate measures. The European Court assessed that the French sex purchase ban does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The French sex purchase ban, which includes support programs for those wishing to leave prostitution, was deemed a satisfactory balance between privacy protection and society’s need to combat human trafficking.
Since our founding, RealStars has been working towards a sex purchase law at the EU level, aiming to make it illegal to buy someone’s body and thereby exploit their vulnerability. The vision is a Europe free from trafficking, and for that to happen, it must be prohibited to buy sex in all European countries. On that day, we can also inspire other parts of the world. The sex industry and its allies are, of course, working against the implementation of sex purchase laws similar to Sweden’s in more countries. The lobby for men’s right to purchase sex is strong.
Read the full opinion piece in Dagens Juridik, “Purchasing Sex is Not a Human Right” by Thomas Ahlstrand, a prosecutor in Gothenburg and a Swedish member of the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking committee, GRETA, and Malin Roux Johansson, founder and secretary-general of the anti-trafficking organization RealStars. The article was published on November 11 of this year.
