Normalising sex work will not free prostitutes of control of pimps, Equality Commission warns

Malta’s equality commission wants buyers of sex to be penalised, it said in the latest of a raft of criticism directed at comments from the parliamentary secretary for equality on a liberalisation of prostitution laws.

The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) said that in order for the Prostitution Reform Technical Committee to take a human rights approach in terms of decriminalising prostitution, sex-buying must also be penalised. 

“Prostitution is a form of exploitation rife with physical and psychological violence. It is also, primarily, an exercise in power and control of men over women, since the absolute majority of prostitutes are women, while the absolute majority of pimps and clients are men.

“While prostitutes should not be punished for suffering exploitation, sex-buyers should be penalised. This disrupts the exploitative sex market and sends a strong message in favour of gender equality,” they said.

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The commission said countries which normalised prostitution and legitimised sex-buying saw a widening of the sex market through an increase in both demand and need for supply, becoming a magnet for human trafficking for sexual exploitation and a hub of sex tourism. 

It said Sweden, which criminalised the purchase of sexual services, reported a shrinking sex industry and a reduction in human trafficking.  “Less demand, less supply,” the commission declared.

The commission wants the discussion surrounding prostitution reform to focus on the behaviour of clients, mostly men, and the existing patriarchal structures of inequality that lead many men to objectify women and buy their bodies. 

“The prostitution reform should thus embrace efforts to promote gender equality in society and fight gender stereotypes, as well as devise a strategy for a crackdown on pimps and traffickers… As the national equality body, the NCPE reiterates that the prostitution reform should be centred around the principles of human rights and equality,” the NCPE said.