A Study on the Prostitution Law for the Protection of Women’s Human Rights: Focused on the Nordic Model

Abstract

According to Korea's current law, both sex sellers and sex buyers, who are parties to prostitution, are punished, but those forced to sell sex due to hierarchy and power are excluded from the punishment, and the burden of proof of the damage is placed on women in prostitution. Although prostitution is currently illegal, the market size of prostitution is estimated to be more than 30 trillion won, and it is becoming more organized and intelligent. At the same time, the problem of human rights violations such as exploitation and violence against sex-selling women is accelerating. This shows that the current method of regulating prostitution has limitations in eradicating prostitution, blocking demand, and protecting the human rights of prostitution women. Above all, the current punishment clause for both parties of prostitution is abused as a means of threatening women even if they are victims of various crimes such as sexual violence and abuse. In addition, if prostitution women fail to prove the damage that they were forced to trade sex by others, they will eventually be punished, which makes them hesitate to report. In this situation, practical solutions are needed to effectively block the growing demand for prostitution and to protect prostitution women, and as part of this, it is essential to consider the Nordic model of punishing sex buyers and brokers without punishing sex sellers.