Johanna Westeson - The ICHRP

number. 896 As of late October 2009, the bill had not yet been presented to the Dutch
Parliament.
So far, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that prostitutes have easy access to
health care, while employers and the prostitutes themselves are responsible more
concretely for health and working conditions. Employers’ responsibilities include to pursue
a safe sex policy and to encourage prostitutes to undergo regular check-ups for STIs. There
are no mandatory medical check-ups imposed on sex workers. 897
A great number of enforcement mechanisms are in place to monitor the compliance with
the rules on prostitution. These include the police and the Public Prosecution Service, the
Labour Inspectorate and the Social Information and Investigation Service to control and
enforce national legislation, but also special municipal enforcement bodies such as the
Municipal Medical and Health Service and municipal building and housing inspectorate
departments. 898 The model local by-law contains the requirement that no illegal migrant
may work in a sex industry in order for the establishment to be granted license;
consequently, immigration authorities also play a key role in monitoring compliance with
the regulations. 899
Commentators have pointed to problematic aspects and unintended side effects of Dutch
regulations on sex work. One such problem regards undocumented migrant sex workers:
since the reform resulted in stricter migration controls, many undocumented sex workers
have gone underground. Needless to say, a movement underground will lead to extreme
vulnerability of this group, with potentially serious health effects. 900 Furthermore, the
municipal by-laws have been criticized for the onerous requirements small business must
meet in order to be granted licenses; this, according to commentators, has made it
impossible for many self-employed sex workers or small-scale brothels to operate
legally. 901 Some commentators express concern that the regulations have created a twotiered
system, where working conditions have improved in the licensed brothels, but where
sex workers in illegal brothels, including many migrant sex workers, are considerably more
vulnerable to abuse, violence and labor exploitation than before. 902 The proposed
mandatory registration of sex workers also raises concern from a privacy point of view and
may lead to an even growing number of sex workers going underground.
In Germany prostitution is not only decriminalized but also regulated in a federal law, the
Act Regulating the Legal Situation of Prostitutes (Prostitution Act). 903 Before 2002,
providing sexual services in exchange for payment as such was not illegal, but the activity
896 Dutch National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking in Human Beings, seventh report (2009). Summary
available in English at http://english.bnrm.nl/reports/7th-report/. Visited on 10 April 2010.
897 According to “Dutch Policy on Prostitution” (2004).
898 National Rapporteur (2002), pp. 20-21.
899 Ibid.
900 OSI report (2006), p. 15.
901 Ibid.
902 According to commentators interviewed in 2004 report commissioned by the Working Group of the
Ministry of Justice and Police of Norway (in assessing results of prostitution legislation in other European
countries preceding the Norwegian reform, see below) on legal regulation of sexual services: “Purchasing
Sexual Services in Sweden and the Netherlands. Legal Regulation and Experiences” (2004). Available at
http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/kilde/jd/rap/2004/0034/ddd/pdfv/232216-
purchasing_sexual_services_in_sweden_and_the_nederlands.pdf, last visited on 10 April, 2010.
903 BGBl. I S. 3983, passed on 20 December 2001, in force since 1 January 2002. Only available in German.
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