The Social Democrat leadership wants to reverse the party's 1999 decision to decriminalise prostitution in Denmark.

In advance of their annual congress this coming weekend, the Social Democrats have aired a proposal that would bring Denmark in line with legislation in Norway and Sweden. Party leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt said Denmark was the only remaining country in the region without laws preventing the purchase of sex from prostitutes, and this left it open to becoming a haven for the sex trade. This comes after a long-term discussion within the party over such a move.

In 1999, when the party was in power, prostitution was decriminalised. This made it legal to have prostitution as one's main source of income. Since 1930, prostitution had been allowed only as a secondary source of income. Pimping and running a brothel are still criminal activities.

Despite the problems associated with a ban, we're now taking the step to work for a full ban on sexual services, Thorning-Schmidt said. Other members of the party, however, have expressed their concern about the effects of such a ban.

I'm concerned about women who earn a living as prostitutes, MP Morten Bødskov said. Criminalising prostitution would make the trade even rougher and put it in the hands of criminals. He suggested the party instead seek to help women out of prostitution.

The proposal has also met resistance from members of the prime minister's Liberal Party, MP Sophie Løhde, called the proposal naive and poorly thought out. It's an easy answer, but it's not the answer, she said.

The Social Democrats will also face an uphill battle selling their ban to the electorate. In a  poll for Jyllands-Posten newspaper, only 26% said they were in favour of criminalising prostitution. Within the party's own ranks, 29% said they were in favour.

More information in Danish:
www.berlingske.dk/article/20090926/politik/709260054/
www.berlingske.dk/article/20090925/kommentarer/90925159/
ekstrabladet.dk/nationen/article1229521.ece

A women's nutter group has welcomed a decision by Spain's parliament to reject a move that would have made prostitution legal.

Parliament on Tuesday voted 329-5 against a proposal to recognize prostitution as a profession.

The Federation of Progressive Women welcomed the vote, describing prostitution as a form of violence and slavery which was being supported and promoted by many people.

The Catalan republican party ERC, which tabled the proposal, said it would prefer prostitution not to exist, but that it was better to grant prostitutes legal rights than to leave them at the mercy of pimps.

Parliament also rejected calls for a ban on newspaper ads on prostitution, saying it was preferable for the media voluntarily to stop advertising the sex trade.

Pursuing her private pleasures on expenses?

The Treasury has denied firms receive tax breaks for corporate visits to lap-dancing clubs after 'Equalities' Minister Harriet Harman denounced it.

Harman petitioned the chancellor to end tax relief on such events which she argued exclude female employees. However, the Treasury said corporate entertainment of any kind was not deductable for tax or VAT purposes.

Firms can claim back VAT for trips which were genuinely related to developing staf", a spokesman said. He said HM Revenue and Customs would likely have to examine whether such a visit to a lap-dancing club had been wholly and exclusively for the benefit of business, and would more likely be seen as a "gift" or perk.

Harman told a meeting of extreme feminists of the Fawcett Society on Thursday: I will take up the issue of tax relief, because there is a whole host of rules around tax relief. For example you can't get tax relief for childcare, which is necessary for you to go to work. Why should you be able to get tax relief for a night out at a lap-dancing club where effectively you are discriminating against women employees in doing so?"

A Treasury spokesman said it appeared Ms Harman had been misinformed: Corporate entertainment of any kind is not deductible for corporate tax or VAT purposes. Knowingly claiming for corporate entertainment is tax fraud and those who try to evade their legal obligations will face penalties in addition to paying back any evaded tax.

Nutter campaigners 'find' that the sex industry is undermining equality between women and men at work

the Fawcett Society claim that the use of lap dancing clubs and display of pornography in a work context is a major new threat to women's equality at work.

Their paper, Corporate Sexism: the sex industry's infiltration of the modern workplace, was launched at an event hosted by BT, with Harriet Hatemen, Minister for Women, the key-note speaker.

The nutters’ 'findings' include:

• 41% of UK lap dancing clubs directly target employers through marketing on their websites
• 86% of lap dancing clubs in London provide ‘discrete receipts’ which enable employees to claim back expenses from their employer without it being evident the money was spent in a lap dancing club
• Lads’ mags are displayed for sale purposes in over 50,000 workplaces. A content analysis of leading titles revealed all contained pornographic imagery. Yet there are no independent, compulsory guidelines regarding the display and sale of pornography, and no major retailer has a policy of covering up lads’ mags or putting them on the top shelf

Fawcett claims that the use of lap dancing clubs and display of pornography in a work context is seriously undermining women’s status at work and is in violation of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

Their recommendations include:

• Implementing independent regulation of sexually explicit print media
• Covering up lads’ mags and putting them on the top shelf when displayed in shops
• Implementing robust workplace policies and procedures to prevent pornography and lap dancing clubs being used in a work context

Kat Banyard, Campaigns Officer at the Fawcett Society said:

While the days when it was deemed acceptable to hang ‘girly calendars’ on office walls may be long gone, the presence of degrading imagery of women in UK workplaces has never been more endemic. Pornographic lads’ mags are openly displayed in over 50,000 retail shops – each one of them somebody’s workplace. But displaying these magazines in this way is in violation of the Sex Discrimination Act, so it is crucial that retail employers cover up pornographic newspapers and lads’ mags and place them on the top shelf.

Singapore's government is set to harangue new hotels that rent rooms by the hour, as it tightens the rules for these places which are often seen as facilitating prostitution.

Newcomers applying for an operating licence have to justify why they are offering such rates. In addition, they have to install closed-circuit television systems, and hire guards to preserve the safety of their guests and look out for possible illegal activities.

Hoteliers with an eye on offering such rooms in residential areas will face an even harder time. They are required to engage the community and respond to concerns of residents, said S. Iswaran, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry.

He announced the new measures in Parliament on Monday. Singapore Tourism Board's director of resource development, Rebecca Lim, said the new rules take effect immediately but apply only to new hotels. Existing hotels that rent rooms by the hour are exempted from these stricter measures.

The latest changes follow initial deterrent steps taken by the Hotels Licensing Board (HLB). In January, it banned all hotels in Joo Chiat from offering hourly rates, in a bid to stop vice activities in the area.

British Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas, urged her party to re-examine its prostitution policy at a packed fringe meeting in Brighton at the weekend.

Lucas was one of the panel speakers in a rigorous debate calling on party activists to move policy towards a Nordic model of criminalising punters and decriminalising prostitutes.

Currently, the Green Party argues for total decriminalisation of the sex industry similar to the model operating in New Zealand.

Lucas insisted that the current policy was well meaning but, if implemented, would not lead to protecting women who were prostitutes.

Reading aloud a letter from Finn Mackay of the Feminist Coalition Against Prostitution (FCAP), Lucas said: How can the Green Party be against the worst aspects of capitalism and not be against this ultimate commodification of women? Poverty and patriarchy drive prostitution, not individual free choice.

Panellist Natalie Bennett from London questioned the veracity of Object's research methods, suggesting that decriminalising the whole industry would protect prostitutes best.

Once it is decriminalised, like in New Zealand, the safety systems can be put in place by the women themselves to make their work safer, she argued, adding: It is about free choice and we are a party of free choice.

The delegates were agreed that they had the same end goal - looking at the best interests of prostitutes - but were at odds over how to achieve this.

A straw poll at the end found that a majority wanted to change the current policy.

Traditionally perceived as relatively marginal, prostitution is increasingly seen as normal, with ever younger men preferring to pay for sex rather than taking the trouble of trying to pick up girls.

Prostitution is again making headlines after the daily newspaper El Pais published pictures of prostitutes and their clients having sex on the street at night in a Barcelona tourist neighbourhood.

Barcelona had become increasingly lax in applying a 2006 municipal ordinance which stipulated fines of up to 750 euros (1,050 dollars) for sex workers or their clients, critics complain.

Associations representing local residents or the prostitutes themselves urged a legalization of the trade, describing it as the only way to guarantee prostitutes adequate working conditions. The city, however, only deployed more police to chase the sex workers off the streets in the Raval neighbourhood.

The influx of immigrants has led to the growth of prostitution in Spain, where up to 300,000 women are estimated to be selling sex in flats, hostels, streets, parks or at around 2,500 'clubs' functioning as brothels. Around 90% of the sex workers are migrants from countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, Romania or Russia.

Nearly 30% of Spanish men admit to having bought sex, according to the National Statistics Institute. The abundant offer of cheap women with a variety of exotic looks has made many young men regard prostitution as a normal leisure activity, with the average age of the clients dropping to around 30years, El Pais quoted psychologists and other researchers as saying. The growth of prostitution reflects a culture of immediacy, the will to get casual sex fast and without effort, the daily wrote.

Police Operation

7th September 2009. Based on article from laht.com

One hundred police officers took part Saturday in an anti-prostitution operation in downtown Barcelona that ended with 16 arrests along the landmark thoroughfare of Las Ramblas in the Catalan capital.

Besides the 16 people arrested, another 78 were identified. Those taken into custody were two Nigerian prostitutes, two Brazilian transvestites and another 12 foreign citizens who are in Spain illegally, police officials said.

Taking part in the operation were agents of Spain’s National Police, the regional Catalan police and the Barcelona municipal force. This police macro-operation is the first in which the three police forces have worked together and comes after a fierce controversy sparked by the publication at the beginning of this week of prostitutes photographed having sex in the middle of downtown Barcelona.

The interior ministry of the regional government of Catalonia promised to maintain until the end of autumn the police reinforcements that in recent days have succeeded in driving prostitutes out of Las Ramblas, one of the best-known areas.

Update: Legally Moved off the Street

14th September 2009. Based on article from spanishnews.es

After days of heavy dispute both amongst Barcelona’s citizens, its politicians as well as Spanish and international media, the verdict appears to be that Barcelona’s prostitutes will soon be able to legally practice their profession in commercial premises and apartments.

The big debate was stirred up last week, after El Pais published photos of tourists having sex with prostitutes in the streets of Barcelona and around the famous La Boqueria market at night. The photos even led Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to join the discussion, demanding Barcelona to clear out its prostitutes.

The councilor of Citutat Vella, Itziar González, expressed the city council’s intention of modifying the urban plan to grant licenses of bars with privées in order to allow sexual practices. The legal changes would be finalized this month and come into effect towards the beginning of 2010. The government hopes to rid Barcelona’s streets of prostitution with the new measure.

The measure has been very well received by prostitutes, business owners as well as neighbourhood associations, nevertheless the opposition lead by CiU party leader Xavier Trias, sees the measure as an easy way out and cowardly as well as a step back from the regeneration of the area.

Watching hardcore porn movies at home is on the rise in French households thanks to internet, TV and changing morals but the majority says it has little to do with sex in real life, a survey shows.

In its first general survey on pornography, the IFOP polling institute found that 89% of the 1,016 people interviewed had seen an adults-only film in its entirety or in part – 97% men, 83% women. The majority had viewed the porn at home, 57% alongside a partner.

Access to X-rated movies through cable TV and the Internet has made the genre more commonplace and more accessible, Francois Kraus, who carried out the study on behalf of a porn movie company, told AFP: French people now are more open towards X-rated movies.

While 69% said porn movies were exciting, 59% thought them ridiculous and 58% degrading.

In Islam, there are only men and women, there are no transsexuals, and this is an Islamic country so that makes life very difficult for us, says Tasha who has been cross-dressing since she was a child.

Like many transsexuals in Malaysia, a conservative and mostly Muslim country, the clash between ID card and appearance means Tasha is shunned by employers, and forced to make her living as a sex worker.

It's a hard life, people don't like us, they're always making fun of us, she says as she prepares for another night in the grimy alleyways of Chow Kit, the red light district of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Enforcement officials from the Islamic Affairs Department (JAWI) -- notorious for swooping on nightclubs and motels in search of Muslims drinking or having extramarital sex -- regularly descend on the streets of Chow Kit.

Sex workers are sent scattering on their high heels, and those who are caught and hauled off face jail or intensive counselling sessions like a two-week interrogation Tasha once endured.

Although she is on the margins of society, she continues to perform the Muslim prayers, fasts during the holy month of Ramadan, and respected her mother's wish that she not undergo sex-change surgery. Of course I still believe I'm a Muslim, it's just that the religion cannot accept us transsexuals, she says: Why can't Islam accept us? We are human beings as well. I am also one of God's creations.

It was not always this way for transsexuals in Malaysia, where they are known as mak nyah. Until the early 1980s transsexuals were usually accepted in Malaysia, they could go for a sex change and amend their identity card, says Teh Yik Koon from the National Defence University who has written a book on mak nyahs.

But in 1983 a fatwa, or Islamic ruling, that prohibited gender-reassignment surgery as well as cross-dressing was imposed on all Malaysian Muslims.

Influential Islamic cleric Harussani Zakaria, who helped establish the 1983 fatwa, defended the strict approach and said that transsexuals should use their willpower and adopt a traditional lifestyle: You cannot be transsexual, you are either a woman or a man. Why do they want to go against Allah?. If God has created you as a boy, then act like a boy.

Glasgow Council is taking action against cabbies in the local area who feature advertising for lap-dancing clubs in their vehicles.

A ban has been issued by the authority which prevents any of its workers from using a taxi which displays advertising for the establishments, reports the Sunday Mail.

The council explained that it has decided to initiate the move as part of its ongoing actions against Glasgow's lap-dancing industry, which it described as a form of commercial sexual exploitation.

Council deputy leader Jim Coleman, who announced the ban via letters written to each department, has stated that taxis in the area which promote the clubs will therefore no longer benefit from the authority's custom.

This comes after the body last month announced new plans to install CCTV cameras inside cabs operating in the city in a move to monitor taxi users.

Thailand’s boxing silver medalist in the Athens Olympic Games, Worapoj Petchkhoon, will not see action in the Southeast Asian Games in Laos in December as he has been banned for three months as a punishment for modeling in a gay magazine.

There were reports that Worapoj appeared nearly naked in the Thai gay magazine STAGE which got the attention of the media as well as the Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand (ABAT).

ABAT president Taweep Jantararoj initially stated that national athletes were supposed to present a good image while Worapoj defended his actions claiming the images, including the one on the magazine cover, were sporty and not obscene, but still they have tarnished the reputation of the national athletes.

A Norwegian man was fined Kr8,000 (£800) after he complained to police that he had been cheated by a prostitute.

The man is the first person in Troms Province to be charged under Norway’s new law forbidding the purchase of sexual services.

Nordlys newspaper reported that the man had paid a Russian prostitute for her services in the northern city of Tromsö, but that she had left with the cash when they failed to agree on a final price.

Kurt Pettersen, of Tromsö Police, told the newspaper: He contacted the police because he felt he did not get the services he paid for. Since they were not able to agree [on a price], the woman left and he ended up with nothing.

Centre-left Copenhagen counsellors are launching a campaign to prevent an increase in prostitution during two-week UN Climate Change Conference in December.

Nutters of The Social Democrat and Socialist People’s Party (SF) councillors are trying to introduce a code of ethics imploring participants at the UN Climate Change Conference not to visit prostitutes.

All participants in the conference will be contacted and encouraged to sign the code of ethics promising not to engage the services of prostitutes.

There is always a serious increase in prostitution during large summits. It is degrading for the women who sell their bodies and also gives a negative image of what the climate delegates are up to when they will come to the Copenhagen conference, SF’s Ninna Thomsen told TV2 News.

Colombia has all the attributes to becoming like Thailand as an important touristic destination, including a sex tourism hub.

There are three elements that have nurtured Thailand’s sex tourism industry. First, Thailand has a comparative advantage (at least regional) in beautiful women that European and North American sex tourists find appealing. Second, there is an internal culture of male-chauvinism and prostitution. Third, the government has adopted, and in many cases facilitated, this industry by turning a blind eye. Naturally, all these factors are mediated by the economic situation.

Colombia scores particularly high on all these aforementioned elements. Foreigners are usually mesmerized by the beauty of Colombian women as well as their distinctive personalities, which contrast with their counterparts in developed countries. The attributes of men are also appreciated, especially by North American women, who enjoy landing in San Andres islands to engage in romantic and steamy holidays with local boys.

Colombian culture is more male-chauvinist than Thai culture and prostitution catering to the local market is a well-known thriving industry. The development of the internal sex industry is such that each social class satisfies its urges in a distinct manner. Be it with traditional street prostitutes, in brothels or with the more classy pre-pagos (escorts). The culture of quick and (arguably) easy money makes prostitution a more prevalent form of raising (extra) money in Colombia than in other countries, while the belief that prostitution is like any other past-time provides plenty of clients.

The level of sex tourism in Cartagena is already higher than past years. According to Mayerlin Vergara, who works for Fundacion Renacer, half the people on Cartagena’s streets after certain hour at night are connected to the sex trade.

In the latest move to crack down on the use of karaoke parlours for prostitution, a draft regulation would require karaoke parlours to maintain separate karaoke equipment for the use of staff.

Under the draft, which has been submitted to the Prime Minister for approval, members of the public would be barred from using karaoke equipment reserved for staff only.

I think this idea in the draft regulation is fair and professional, said Le Anh Tuyen, head of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Legal Department: Previously, the failure to distinguish between business and non-business uses of karaoke equipment has created an opportunity for social evils, allowing karaoke to be used as a disguise for other activities, like prostitution.

The latest draft no longer contains, however, a controversial prohibition of dancing in karaoke halls. In contrast to the April draft, the latest version simply states, Dancing is permitted only at dancehalls with proper equipment and conditions as noted in this regulation.

The latest draft also allows hotels rated at four stars or higher to operate bars, karaoke parlours and dancehalls until 2am, a change based on increasing demand by foreign tourists for entertainment facilities that stay open later. According to Tuyen, the ministry was considering whether to allow three-star hotels to operate bars until 2am.

The regulation would retain existing provisions requiring bars be located at least 200m from hospitals, schools and pagodas. Some it HCM City had asked that the distance be reduced to 100m, Tuyen said, but the proposals were rejected.

On the surface, the Mediterranean coastal city of Beirut is an upmarket tourist destination, offering Arab tourists good weather, good food, and good times. But Beirut's greatest attraction is sex. Arab tourists flock in the thousands to Lebanon from Gulf countries every summer. More and more, Arab men seem to be attracted by the growing opportunities to engage in sex tourism.

Lebanon has long been known to cater to all desires: a place where Arab tourists can break taboos they must contend with in their home countries.

Lebanese women - with their outgoing characters, love of life and, most of all, their trendy European looks - have in recent years become central to attracting more Arab tourists into the country.

One of the hottest spots for such tourism is Maameltein, the red- light district of Lebanon, 20 kilometres north of Beirut.

It's a place where Arab tourists can watch beautiful women from Belarus, Ukraine, and Romania performing naked on stage. A night out with one of the dancers can cost 1,000 dollars.

One pimp in Maameltein, who asked to be identified as Carlos, told dpa that there's no shortage of women, either local or from Europe, in Maameltein: The rates vary, the Eastern European girls are the most highly paid, Lebanese come next, and then Iraqis.

During a tour, Carlos receives calls from his clients. My friend, I need three Ukrainian and one Lebanese for tonight to come to a party at my residence, Carlos quoted the caller, whom he said was from Saudi Arabia. This would cost between 5,000 and 6,000 dollars per night because this is delivery to the residence, he said, puffing a large cigar.

One girl Noura said: I know this is not a good job but we want to live and this is the easiest way to earn a living. Noura's pimp, who asked to be identified as Kamal, said Iraqi women find that this is their only means of survival, especially if they have no other training or skills in which to support themselves. Asked the rate for an Iraqi woman, Kamal says: If they are experienced, then it's between 400 and 500 dollars.

As for Lebanese women, we sell them only to foreign men for fear that one day their families would know about their secret job, added Kamal.

Prostitution in Lebanon is practised undercover after a 1998 law forbidding brothels. Legal licenses are limited to places offering sex shows.

Mobile phone networks have been asked to cut off sex workers ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

City Hall chiefs have called on phone companies to help crack down on prostitution in the lead up to the sporting event.

They want help targeting numbers advertised on thousands of sex calling cards that appear in phone boxes throughout the capital.

Kit Malthouse, deputy mayor for mean mindedness and policing, said the mobile phone numbers are a valuable resource for those behind the sex industry.

He said an agreement must be reached between mobile phone networks and police that sees them taken out of use as soon as they are identified.

Malthouse said: If you are an American tourist and if you walk into a telephone box you would think it was a sex shop. We want a streamlined, agreed process for barring these numbers because they become very valuable for a number of reasons. Firstly, they become a source of repeat business. Plus the numbers operate as a kind of switchboard, there will be several poor girls operating behind the number. Hopefully it will become dangerous to advertise your number in these boxes because you may loose your business.

Chief executives of all the major mobile operators have been invited to a meeting at City Hall in October. City Hall named Vodafone, Orange, O2, 3, Virgin and T-Mobile as the main companies in their sights.

Malthouse has had a bee in his bonnet over calling cards since 2000 when he worked as a councillor in Westminster. At one point campaigners stood in Oxford Street handing out calling cards printed with details of mobile phone company bosses.

Serbian 'experts' believe that Serbia should follow Bulgaria's model of handling the prostitution and sex tourism industries in order to raise state revenue.

According to publications in the Serbian media, the cited 'experts' estimated that the country's state budget could raise additional revenue of over 500 million Euros from changes in its approach to prostitution.

They believe that the additional benefits of finding a way to legalize the prostitution would also boost the local economy and turn Serbia into a country with regulated sex tourism. The prostitutes in Serbia are believed to be about 40,000.

The Chair of the Association of Night Clubs, Slavoljup Veljkovic, is quoted as saying that the prostitution industry in Serbia commanded enormous sums of money. He is calling for adopting the Bulgarian experience where each year officially the Bulgarian prostitutes makes at least EUR 1.8 billion, which is 7,2% of the country's GDP.

Economist Goran Nikolic is quoted as saying that a large amount of money would be raised by the state if prostitution was legalized, pointing out that this sort of industry existed anyway. He believes that foreigners associated Serbia with pretty women in general, and that they would feel better if they could be with Serbian prostitutes in a legal way, and to know that they were protected by the law. This sort of regulated sex tourism, in his words, is also going to bring down the prices because there would be no intermediaries for the service.

Contrary to what the Serbian experts imply, Bulgaria has no legal texts legalizing the prostitution in any way. The publication most likely refers to the existence of escort - or 'companion' - services in Bulgaria, many of which are reported to serve as a cover for prostitution services. Those clubs or firms are registered as commercial entertainment companies and they indeed pay the respective corporate taxes.

As police crackdowns on brothels in traditional red light zones have been intensifying after the anti-prostitution law was passed in 2004, owners have found creative ways to fly below the police radar.

Brothel owners have swiftly changed the faces of their businesses, which masquerade as massage parlors or telephone chat rooms, but authorities have also clamped down on these new sex shops.

Amid this game of cat and mouse, a new kind of business has appeared -- Kiss Bang or kissing rooms, where men pay to kiss female workers.

Such establishments are an unintended effect of the special anti-prostitution law passed in 2004, which penalizes both the dealer and client of sex services, experts say.

According to a study conducted by the Ministry of the Female Gender in 2007, the number of brothels in Korea decreased 41%, from 1,679 shops in 2004 to 992 in 2007. Also, the number of women working in the sex industry decreased from 5,567 in 2004 to 2,523, dropping 55%

However, the number of massage parlors and other businesses suspected of engaging in the sex trade nearly doubled to 9,451 in 2007 from 5,481 in 2005.

It is difficult for authorities to harass this new type of business because there are no laws against kissing for money.

Gender Inequality Minister Byun Do-yoon said last month that her ministry would, with the aid of local police, carry out a large-scale crackdown on kissing rooms and other new types of sex related establishments.

For now, the only thing we can do about kissing rooms is strengthen on-the-spot crackdowns and find an actual sex trade there. Then we can suspend their businesses for sexual acts, said Kim Ga-ro, director of Women's Rights Planning Division at the Ministry of Gender Inequality: We are closely studying ways to penalize these establishments.

Police who participate in crackdowns say it is not easy to find these clandestine businesses. Kissing rooms receive clients only through online reservations, and surveillance cameras are installed in front of their buildings, making raids difficult.

It is hard to find where these shops are located. Besides, even if we can find the shops at all, they have strict entrance rules. We don't have enough manpower, and there are not enough reports from citizens, said a policeman, who asked not to be named.

New evidence has been published which fundamentally undermines the government's arguments in favour of criminalising those who pay for sex.

The research comes from Vancouver, and was conducted by the University of British Colombia. It found a direct correlation between criminalisation and increased violence against sex workers.

Evidence from Vancouver and the UK shows that criminalisation reinforced stigma and facilitates violence against sex workers, a spokesperson for the International Union of Sex Workers told politics.co.uk: We know that the government's policies in the policing and crime bill although they are described as intending to protect vulnerable women, they will in fact increase the level of violence sex workers experience - both indoors and out.

The new research follows a damaging report from the respected Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which found the majority of the migrant workers in the UK sex industry were not forced or trafficked.

It also concluded that criminalising clients would not stop the sex industry and that it would be pushed underground, making it more difficult for migrants working in the UK sex industry to assert their rights in relation to both clients and employers.

Taken together, the research provides a devastating critique of the government's policy platform, which was based on an attempt to end the trafficking of women into the UK to work in the sex industry.

The Vancouver research found the factors causing a prevalence of violence could be stemmed by decriminalising the sex industry.

According to the report's author, Professor Kate Shannon, factors such as being forced to service clients in cars or public places, inability to access drug treatment and a prior assault by police all correlated with violence against female sex workers: The persistent relationship between enforcement of prostitution and drug use policies (e.g. confiscation of drug use paraphernalia without arrest, and enforced displacement to outlying areas) suggests that criminalisation may enhance the likelihood of violence against street-based female sex workers.

The findings support global calls to remove criminal sanctions targeting sex workers, Professor Shannon said.

I sentence you to 5 years  community service! Report to my chambers at 8pm sharp

A female stripper charged with rape over an incident with a sex toy at a stag party has been found not guilty. Linda Maree Naggs appeared relieved when the verdict was read out in the County Court.

During the trial, the complainant told the County Court he urged Ms Naggs not to put the sex toy into his anus and was shocked when she did: I was pretty upset at that stage,I could feel something was there.

The best man told the court he scuffled with Naggs and told her to leave after the incident: She said it was just a joke, just a joke. I knew that there was something wrong down there. He said when he asked for his money back, the stripper threatened to call in bikies.

Ms Naggs' barrister Paul Higham told jurors if there had been penetration it was an accident: This is the case of the accidental rape, if there was one.

During Ms Naggs' performance, the best man's shirt was removed and she asked him to take off his jeans, Kieran Gilligan prosecuting said. The court heard he was naked from the knees up. Gilligan said Ms Naggs directed him to get on all fours before she strapped the sex toy to herself. When he raised concerns about where she might put the sex toy, Gilligan said she replied: Not a problem, relax, it's only fun, I won't go there.

But the best man claims she penetrated him anyway, before telling him don't worry, only you and I know, the jury was told...[you and I and the rest of the world!]

A group of 50 professors has signed a letter urging Rhode Island lawmakers not to ban indoor prostitution.

Rhode Island is the only state in the country besides several counties in Nevada where indoor prostitution is legal.

In a letter, George Washington University professor Ronald Weitzer and Nassau Community College professor Elizabeth Wood said prostitutes who work indoors are less likely to be assaulted, raped or robbed. They said treating indoor and outdoor prostitution differently is a step in the right direction.

Rhode Island House and Senate lawmakers have backed sharply different bills that would ban indoor prostitution. They are trying to reach a compromise before a vote expected in September.

Experts say that there are 12,000 prostitutes in Ukraine, many of whom are students trying to make ends meet in difficult times.

One group of opponents has found creative -- and sometimes abrasive -- ways to let foreign tourists know that Ukraine is no whorehouse.

Last year, the women founded an organization called Femen. Most of the group's members are university students, but there also some high school kids and even a few men. Their mission: to fight against sex tourism and prostitution -- and to do so with provocative activities. For example, the women once dressed up as nurses with backpacks full of syringes to protest in front of the Turkish Embassy. Anna Hutsol, one of Femen's founders and leaders, says that the action was meant symbolically. We wanted to cure foreigners' sex addiction, she says.

...Read full article

Police and law officials have raided German bordellos under suspicion of social security fraud, among others. They have been trying to stop the flat-rate fee system in brothels, arguing that it violates prostitutes' dignity.

While the global recession has hit the financial sector, the export industry, and car companies, it has also been felt in the world's oldest business sector - prostitution.

One such way which has made headlines in Germany is the flat-rate fee system, offered by at least four brothels in Germany, where prostitution is legal.

The Pussy Club chain offers such a flat rate, which entitles customers to unlimited sexual services all day for a one-off entry fee of 70 euros ($100).

But the new discount scheme has triggered a wave of protests, especially in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Authorities there are now trying to shut down the brothels, arguing the new pricing plan violates the human dignity of the women working there.

Baden-Wuerttemberg Justice Minister Ulrich Goll told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine that there was a strong enough legal justification for police and authorities to intervene: If you look at the way these brothels advertise, then there's a violation of the human dignity of the prostitutes who work there, he said, adding that authorities were working on a way to stop the brothels from operating the way they do under that current fee system.

On Sunday, police and justice officials searched brothels using the plan in Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Schoenefeld near Berlin and Wuppertal. They say they suspect the bordellos of social security fraud, employing foreign prostitutes without permission and not maintaining hygiene standards.

The brothels' advertising slogan has a simple message: Sex with all women, as long as you want, as often as you want. For 70 euros customers are entitled to all the sex, food and drink they want between 10 am and 4 pm. The evening flat rate rises to 100 euros.

The operator of the Pussy Club brothels, Patricia Floreiu, defended the new pricing scheme, arguing that most customers leave after one or two sessions and that none of the women are forced into the working under the new terms: It simply brings in more customers. Hardly anyone can 'do it' more than twice. So basically the flat rate is mostly for the free beer, she says.

Two of the brothels, in Stuttgart and Heidelberg, were ordered closed after health inspectors said they might spread disease. The raids also targeted franchises in Berlin and the city of Wuppertal, but those brothels remained open.

A woman at the centre of a human trafficking and prostitution network has been jailed for six and a half years.

Atchara Nualpenyai, 30, paid criminals in Thailand to bring women into the UK. But they had their passports taken away and were then forced to work as prostitutes to repay 'debt bondages' of up to £30,000. The women were forced to work every day, sometimes sent to other brothels in London and Bristol.

Appearing at Croydon Crown Court, Nualpenyai admitted running two brothels in east London – one in Wanstead High Street and one beneath her flat in Perth Road, Gants Hill.

Last month Nualpenyai pleaded guilty to controlling prostitution and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation. She also pleaded guilty to possessing Class A drugs.

Nualpenyai paid about £11,000 to people in Thailand for the women to be brought to the UK. She also hired maids and ran both brothels, making £100 to £200 per day at each property.

She was caught after one of her victims contacted police in December 2008. The woman, in her 20s, had been trafficked from Thailand to the UK at the end of 2005 and forced to work as a prostitute to pay off a debt bondage of £27,000.

Two passports for young Thai women were recovered in her wardrobe, and 20 Ecstasy tablets were also found in a drawer. One of the passports related to a Thai woman in her 20s who was discovered in the brothel below the flat.

By firing Fort Myers Beach, Florida, Town Manager Scott Janke, Town Council members hoped to avoid negative attention before news leaked that Janke's wife is an adult film star.

That plan may have backfired.

The story about Janke, fired Tuesday after council members learned that his wife, Anabela Mota, is the adult video actress known as Jazella Moore, has put local and national spotlights on the town of 6,500 residents.

Town hall officials have been flooded with media inquiries — including invitations to Mayor Larry Kiker to appear on TV. It's not good, Kiker said. It was on a talk show on (Florida's east coast) this morning. (And) we've gotten threats.

Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, called the firing an example of poor decision making: This might go down as one of the top 10 poor judgments by public officials in Florida history.

In an article on Adult Industry News, Janke said he and his wife believed the news would get out eventually: We have thought about it and tried to keep a low profile. I guess we knew it would happen one day, but hoped that it wouldn't really matter.

Mota is 43, and according to Adult Industry News, has had her Jazella Moore website for the past 18 months.

The Town Council voted unanimously to fire Janke without cause, meaning he will receive six months — or about $50,000 — worth of severance pay and benefits.

Residents and the media are questioning whether Janke can take any legal actions. I just can't imagine a more stupid decision, firing somebody who is acknowledged as being a superb employee, Simon said: Not for something he has done off-hours but for something that his wife has done off-hours, and something that happens to not be illegal.

Bar owners in Phnom Penh were told by the Ministry of Interior that they were required to close at midnight and to ban striptease dancing and the showing of pornographic films.

District and police officials have distributed a list of rules drafted by the ministry to bar owners and instructed them to sign contracts stating that they had read the rules and understood that they would have to close if they did not comply with them.

Daun Penh District Governor Sok Sambath said Sunday that the officials were reminding the bar owners of rules that were already in place: We just re-informed all bars to follow the contract - to close their bars after midnight, not to play loud music, not to show pornographic videos, not to allow drug use and not to allow strip dancing.

A Berlin brothel has come up with a novel way to offset the impact of the global economic crisis and target a new group of customers at the same time - offering a discount to patrons who arrive on bicycles.

The recession has hit our industry hard, said Thomas Goetz, owner of the Maison d'envie brothel: Obviously we hope that the discount will attract more people. It's good for business, it's good for the environment - and it's good for the girls.

Customers who arrive on bicycle or who can prove they took public transportation get a 5-euro ($7) discount from the usual 70-euro ($100) fee for 45 minute sessions, Goetz said. He said the environmentally friendly offer was working a charm.

Wannabe Latin lovers can improve their technique by playing with the erogenous zones of naked mannequins at a new interactive exhibition that has now opened in Berlin.

The Amora sex academy that has opened in Berlin on welcomes visitors with the wry slogan, Finally -- an exhibition for those who always have to touch everything.

More than 50 interactive displays guide visitors through the intimate areas of the male and female bodies, offering helpful tips on everything from striptease to oral sex and how to achieve a perfect orgasm.

The show features several life-sized plastic models, naked and in various positions. One female mannequin light ups when touched in the right spot. A voice shrieks That's it!" when the visitor manages to put his finger on the elusive G-spot.

Next to it is what the museum called its Spank-o-meter. It measures the level of pleasure a mannequin receives when spanked with a leather whip.

Founded by Frenchman Johan Rizki, the sex academy opened in London earlier this year and is also due to come to Barcelona.

An Olympic hopeful from New Zealand has opened a brothel in a bid to raise cash for a tilt at taekwondo glory in 2012.

Logan Campbell competed at Beijing in 2008, but has now opened a 14-room gentleman's club after becoming tired of seeking funding from his parents. To take the financial strain from his parents Campbell has gone into partnership with Hugo Philiips to set up what the pair insist is a high-class escort agency.

New Zealand decriminalised prostitution six years ago, and brothels are allowed to operate with few restrictions.

But NZ Olympic officials say Campbell's business venture may count against him when choosing a team for London 2012.

Selection takes into account not just performance but also the athlete's ability to serve as an example to the youth of the country, Team NZ morality manager John Schofield told the country's Sunday Star Times newspaper.

After sweeping the streets of Norway’s capital Oslo clear of prostitutes last year, city police were a bit shocked to discover that the girls are back and their numbers are just as high as they were before the removal effort.

Norway passed a ban on the purchase of sex services in 2008. But the Aftenposten newspaper reports that the number of sex workers on the capital’s streets is almost back to its pre-ban levels. Local police were surprised by the finding, but promised a quick reaction.

Oslo’s Chief Inspector Oeyvind Norgarden told the Aftenposten The number is surprisingly high, and the customers must be caught. The police chief promises to increase the frequency of patrols along the city streets, even throughout the night. One aim is to catch the customers red-handed in the illegal act.

Norgarden also claims his police will check out every prostitute they run across and check if their residence papers are correct. Most of Oslo’s streetwalkers come from Eastern Europe and Nigeria, according to the police. If they are found to be living in Norway illegally they can be deported.

With many pre-voting polls showing that Denmark will be getting a new coalition government in the next national election, this may well mark the end of legal prostitution in the country. The Social Democrats have announced they are planning add a ban on the purchase of sex to their party platform.

Mette Frederiksen, Social Democrat political affairs spokeswoman, made the announcement that her party will add the issue to its platform at its national congress in September, according to the Copenhagen Post. This move will put the Social Democrats in tune with the Socialist People’s Party, the Social Liberals, and the Red-Green Alliance.

The nation’s present government, run by the Liberals, feels a ban on prostitution would not have the desired effect on Danish society.

Denmark is the only Scandinavian country where you can legally purchase sex. Although the act of pimping is illegal, Danish prostitutes operate completely above the board. They report their earnings to the government and pay taxes. Danish police claim the most sex workers in Denmark actually come from Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa.

There are an estimated 5,700 prostitutes working in Denmark, according to the Social Affairs Ministry. Many of them work in the 130 or so massage parlours and bordellos in the country, the majority of which are located in Copenhagen.

A mayor in the state of Baden-Württemberg has started an initiative to outlaw so-called flat-rate bordellos.

The plan was announced in an interview with Christoph Palm of the Christian Democrat party and mayor of the town Fellbach, near Stuttgart.

Social Democrat representative Katrin Altpeter has lent her support to the plan. The state must intervene quickly to ban arrangements that do not respect human dignity, she said.

The Pussyclub bordello opened in Fellbach on June 5 offering a flat-rate deal for sex. Customers pay between €70 and €100 to patronise prostitutes as often as they like in a single visit.

The low price raises the suspicion that the women are being exploited, Palm told SWR4.