Countries: Mauritania
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1, PW-PRACTICE-1

"Local NGOs report that temporary siriya marriages are still practiced between Mauritanian girls and wealthy Middle Eastern men, particularly in Saudi Arabia" (3).

Countries: Belgium
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"The new law recognises different dimensions of femicides. According to UN data, these crimes are overwhelmingly the result of intimate violence, meaning that the victims are killed by current or past romantic partners, fathers or other relatives. The law adopted by the Chamber recognises intimate femicide, as well as non-intimate (murder perpetrated by a third party, such as a sex worker being killed by a client) and indirect crimes (death as the result of a forced abortion or genital mutilation, for example)" (par. 10-11). This quote suggests that prostitution exists in Belgium because there are some cases when a sex worker could be killed by a client (IME - CODER...more

Countries: Cote D'Ivoire
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"Sara says she is paid between 3,000–5,000 Central African Francs (CFA) – between £3.90 and £6.50 – for every man she sleeps with for a 'short-time' and 25,000 CFA for an overnight stay. The money is split three ways between the brothel, Sara and the madam" (para 3).

Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"Last year Christian Concern said it was 'fully opposed' to a blanket pardon for those convicted under prostitution legislation, but Ms Regan says this is a very important part of her proposals" (para 18). "SNP backbencher Ruth Maguire has long called for the Nordic model to be introduced in Scotland, supporting the work of the campaign group A Model for Scotland. Ms Maguire previously told The Scotsman the Scottish Government needs to criminalise the men who buy sex if there is ever to be true gender equality in Scotland. Despite getting cross-party support, there is likely to be some opposition to her proposals both inside and outside the Scottish Parliament....more

Countries: United States
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"'Strippers are workers, and they should be given the same rights and protections as any other labor force,' bill sponsor Sen. Rebecca Saldaña of Seattle, said in a news release. 'If they are employed at a legal establishment in Washington, they deserve the safeguards that every worker is entitled to, including protection from exploitation, trafficking, and abuse'" (par. 3). "Strippers Are Workers, a dancer-led organization in the state since 2018, advocated for the regulations - and alcohol sales" (par. 8).

Countries: India
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"Bhimappa was not yet ten years old when she became a 'devadasi' – girls coerced by their parents into an elaborate wedding ritual with a Hindu deity, many of whom are then forced into illegal prostitution" (para 2). "It now serves as a means for poverty-stricken families from the bottom of India's rigid caste hierarchy to relieve themselves of responsibility for their daughters" (para 14). "The stigma around their pasts means women who leave their devadasi order often endure lives as outcasts or objects of ridicule, and few ever marry. Many find themselves destitute or struggling to survive on poorly paid manual labour and farming work. Jodatti now heads a...more

Countries: Kenya
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"Kenyan MP Esther Passaris told the BBC she was not surprised at the victim-blaming online because Kenya is a patriarchal society, and looks down on women. She says that as a woman in the public eye, she has been the target of derogatory language and is often called a 'prostitute'" (para 14-15).

Countries: Kenya
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"Faith Mutindi, the co-founder of Dial a pad, said: 'Women are already struggling to get this commodity. Now that the price has doubled, you can imagine what kind of struggles and vices, like transactional sex, it opens these girls up to'" (para 14).

Countries: New Zealand
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"The sex trade and exploitation is so normalised in New Zealand that the media quite often minimises any abuse or violence reported by those in the sex trade, especially of children, by referring to them with terms like 'the victim’s boyfriend.' The media minimises this abuse instead of focusing on the grooming, coercion, trafficking, and exploitation they experience. This is most disappointing and frustrating, as just like sexual abuse, rape, and domestic violence were once taboo subjects that no one wanted to hear about, the violence, racism, and discrimination against women and children of colour in the sex trade is being swept under the carpet. Recently five men were arrested...more

Countries: Malawi
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"For three consecutive days in October 2018, Catherine (real name withheld) went to a fishing camp in Luwuchi community on the shores of Lake Malawi to buy fish known locally as usipa. On each occasion, the widowed mother of three returned empty-handed because the fishermen she approached all wanted sex in exchange, not money. 'I always refused but then life was becoming very hard for me and my children [and] I was in desperate need of making sales since the [fish-selling] business was my only source of income,' Catherine, now 44, told Al Jazeera. 'The next day, I went back to the beach and when the first fisherman demanded sex...more

Countries: Sweden
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"[T]he government carried out a big investigation. They talked to porn club owners, clients at porn clubs, sex buyers, women who sold sex, porn actors, everyone, and they concluded that prostitution is an extreme version of our patriarchal society. I know that many people will say differently. Many people – probably the people outside [people protesting, saying that the Nordic model made it more dangerous for women to be prostitutes]– say that women in prostitution in Sweden don’t want the Nordic Model, but that’s not true" (para 12-13). "I’ve been speaking in Sweden for three or four years now and I have met only a handful of women in prostitution...more

Countries: Japan
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"As Japan’s economy struggles under the weight of the weak yen, the depleted currency has in parallel attracted record numbers of overseas visitors, with Tokyo emerging as a globally recognized red-light destination — with some drawing comparisons to Thailand’s Pattaya, long associated with sex tourism" (par. 1). "Through social media, influencers have inadvertently popularized the seediest parts of Tokyo’s nightlife, often reinforcing harmful stereotypes of Japanese women as submissive, sexually permissive and exotic. These stereotypes, however, are not merely foreign misrepresentations: Japan’s own postwar legal framework and cultural conditions sustain and reinforce them" (par. 2). Beyond audiovisual content, adult entertainment businesses — fūzoku — have also flourished, taking up the...more

Countries: New Zealand
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

“Sex workers are now less tolerant of poor working conditions and expect safe environments that will uphold their rights. They expect the justice system to safeguard these labour and human rights. Successful prosecutions have taken place against those who seek to harm sex workers, such as violent offenders or brothel operators who have sexually harassed sex worker” (para 11).

Countries: Mauritius
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

“Prostitutes have not only been stigmatised, but also treated as criminals and prosecuted” (para 1).

Countries: Ireland
Variables: IRP-PRACTICE-1

"Most sex purchases are made through Escort-Ireland, the country’s largest sexual services website, which provides virtual and in-person sessions, mainly with women, in towns across the country. The site contains explicit reviews of women selling sexual services and allows clients to rate them from one star to five. An investigation by this newspaper found that you can create an account on the site without providing identification to prove you are 18. You must provide ID to advertise yourself as an escort but you can still receive messages from users of the sites as well as promotional emails without doing so" (para 3-5). "Google searches for Escort-Ireland here have remained consistently...more