NLGRev 68-2[1].indd - National Lawyers Guild

76 national lawyers guild review
in the legal industry.” 77 This example reinforces that legalization not only fails
to reduce violence against women, it is often used as a tool to perpetuate it.
The Netherlands experiment: The failure of decriminalization
It is estimated that about 30,000 people “work” in prostitution in the Netherlands.
78 The prostitution industry rakes in one hundred million dollars per year. 79
The Netherlands’ strategy to eliminate trafficking was to decriminalize prostitution
and initiate a license system for brothel operators handled by the municipalities. It
was seen as a way to stop ignoring the brothels and instead admit their existence.
The goal of decriminalization and regulation of prostitution was to raise working
conditions for sex workers, make the sex industry more transparent, and allow the
police to monitor the situation effectively. 80
The Netherlands passed the “Abolition of the Ban of Brothels” in 2000. 81
The purpose of the law was to more closely monitor and regulate the approximately
2,000 pre-existing brothels and sex-clubs in the country. Lawmakers
believed the law would work against the so-called “involuntary” prostitution
and the exploitation of minors and undocumented immigrants in prostitution,
and other unacceptable forms of sexual exploitation. This law was supposed
to make it unattractive and impossible to employ undocumented immigrants
as prostitutes, thus diminishing trafficking to the Netherlands. 82 It has been
a complete failure. The alleged goal of legalization—the prevention of
trafficking—has not been accomplished. Following the Hague Ministerial
Declaration on European Guidelines for effective measures to prevent and
combat trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation from
1997, the Netherlands appointed a National Reporter on Traffic of Persons,
Mensenhandel. 83 This bureau estimated the number of victims of human
trafficking in the Netherlands to be about 3,000 to 3,500 persons in 2003. 84
The central problem is in the economics of the sex industry. A story in
January 2006 from the UN Information Service welcomes a new campaign
in the Netherlands to identify victims of trafficking who have been forced
into prostitution. 85 In the report, it is noted, “Victims of trafficking suffer the
most cruel, degrading and violent treatment. I encourage people to support
this important campaign and provide information to their local police or
through the hotline. I hope other European countries will also do more to
end sexual exploitation.” 86 What the speaker fails to realize is that the State
cannot end sexual exploitation so long as it endorses prostitution. Prostituted
women and girls will always have to be procured anew. If demand is not
addressed, there will never be enough supply of women as “product,” and
trafficking will continue.
It is critical to point out that even though the international recruitment
of persons for “sex workers” is criminalized, domestic or “voluntary”