by Artemis
In 2025, legal scholar Dr. Jakob Drobnik presented a study to the German Parliament confirming the effectiveness of the Nordic Model, aka the Equality Model, in three countries. The Nordic Model is the name of the legal approach calling for decriminalizing victims of prostitution while criminalizing pimps and customers. “The research findings,” Drobnik said, “show that an integrated approach encompassing law enforcement, prevention, and social support is essential for sustainable success.” In Sweden, Norway and France, over half the population has a negative view of prostitution. Organized crime is weakened by financial losses. French exit programs have a 95% success rate. Drobnik recommends improvements in cyber laws and expansion of social support programs. Germany legalized prostitution in 2017, but lawmakers are considering the Nordic model as more compatible with human rights.
On Dec. 3, Nordic Model Now published an open letter supporting Member of Parliament Ash Regan’s “Unbuyable” bill, which would institute the Nordic model in Scotland. It is signed by 127 organizations and 630 individuals from Scotland, the UK, and 27 other countries. The signers include 37 women who experienced prostitution. The letter “provides essential context to the polarization of opinion on this issue”, explaining why there is “such a discrepancy between what women who are currently involved in prostitution say and those who have safely exited and rebuilt their lives outside the industry.” It compares prostitution to domestic violence, describing pressures and dangers preventing victims from leaving. It tells the history of pimps and human traffickers creating the “sex workers rights movement.”
Many signers left enlightening comments. Hungarian policy analyst Borbala Juhasz said, “Hungary is a source country for human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The more countries introduce the Nordic model, the less opportunities pimps will have to move around Hungarian young women just reaching adulthood, the more incentive the Hungarian state will have to make a strong social net to help families in extreme poverty and segregation and fight domestic abuse which always precedes prostitution.”
Laura, a survivor, states, “I can’t put into words the hell the prostitution is. Women need support to exit and men need educating (backed with the full force of law) not to believe they have the right to purchase women and girls. Prostitution ruined my life. I don’t want anyone else to go through this.”
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Nov. 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Feminists established it in 1981, and the UN General Assembly officially recognized it in 2000 to globally raise awareness about all forms of abuse targeting women and girls. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women marked the day with the release of a 2025 Study on Femicide. In 2024, 83,000 women globally were killed intentionally. Of these, 50,000—or 60%—were killed by intimate partners or family members, in contrast to 11% of male homicide victims. This day also begins the UN Women’s annual campaign of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence. This year’s theme is Digital Violence using the hashtag #NoExcuse to “rally for a world where technology is a force for equality–not harm.” Women worldwide demonstrated, demanding social and governmental action in countries including Greece, Spain, El Salvador, Chile, Bangladesh, Italy and Mexico.
Yes, I think the Nordic Model needs to be adopted in every country. It especially makes sense for pimps – among the worst kind of exploiters – to be criminalized. Expanding social safety nets – a lot in some countries – will help eliminate poverty which in turn will improve many lives, preventing many people from being forced into making a living by selling their bodies, from being desperate enough so as to being vulnerable to sex trafficking, and keeping poverty-stricken families from selling their daughters into prostitution.