No more Red Light district? Netherlands to consider banning prostitution as government party argues it’s ‘hypocritical’

Amsterdam’s famous Red Light district may become a thing of the past as one of the junior partners in the Netherlands’ coalition government is calling for paid sex to be banned.

The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) have breathed fresh life into the country’s long-running debate on legality of prostitution with proposals to make paying for sex a punishable offence.

The motion will be debated in the lower house of the Dutch parliament this week and it comes after a Christian youth movement collected 50,000 signatures calling for prostitution to be curbed.

CDA MP Anne Kuik submitted the proposed law change, saying she hopes it will help tackle female inequality.

“Most prostitutes would not actually want to have sex with the man in front of them. But it still happens, because it is paid… So consent is bought, the woman is a product. That is no longer possible in these modern times,” Kuik told the AD newspaper.

The politician claimed that the vast majority of the women who work in Amsterdam’s red light district are from poorer countries in Eastern Europe.

“Ask anyone if they would want their daughter to be a sex worker and they'll say no. But we're allowing young women from Europe's poorer countries to do the job without compunction. That is hypocritical,” she said.

Reports in Dutch media indicate that the CDA's coalition partners, People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and Democrats 66 are against the proposed legislation, arguing that it would not bring an end to prostitution and would only succeed in driving it underground.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!