Womens hour on Ash Regan's private members bill in the Scottish Parliament

Personally I would listen to what Amnesty and WHO have to say over the Christian Institute (one of Regan's main supporters for this).

Of course you would. Presumably the Christian Institute doesn't support "complete decrim". Why do you want prostitution completely decriminalised?

Go Ash! Prostitution is inherently exploitative and cannot be made safe. What kind of man wants to have sex with a woman he knows does not actually want to have sex with him?

Most prostituted women want out and most have trauma. The happy hooker is a fantasy.

Amnesty international that think gc people shouldn't be allowed to vote that Amnesty

I think history (including recent history) has shown that there are many influential organisations that cannot be trusted to act in women’s best interests.

Absolutely. The power of pimps seems to equal the power of extreme transactivists when it involves grooming and exploiting the young with the once respected Amnesty leading the charge.

You have a very keen interest in decriminalising prostitution Chris, you pop up on every thread about it.

Like them or not these 2 are the world's leading on human rights and health matters. Amnesty Int. came to their decision to support decriminalisation of sexwork in 2014 (or around that time) after input from their 80+ offices around the world and researching sexwork worldwide. Joining them are a long list of other health, HIV/AIDs, anti-trafficking/slavery, immigration and sex worker orgs who also oppose the Nordic Model and support complete decrim instead.

When it comes to the time for parliament debate I certainly hope both sides will be looked at including the reasons all these orgs are against the Nordic Model.

Personally I would listen to what Amnesty and WHO have to say over the Christian Institute (one of Regan's main supporters for this).

I also think that is it sensible to use a degree of scepticism about the motivations of bodies such as the WHO and Amnesty that have influence on policy. We already know that Amnesty seem to have forgotten women's rights when they are pushing for trans rights or privileges. It is an obvious target for men with particular agendas to gain influence in influential organisations.

I agree - almost as if every advocate for actual women needs to be given a good pasting. To be honest Nuala seems very uncomfortable discussing serious issues for women. No follow-up questions to allow Ash to elaborate, but always a defensive response.

Why on earth would she defend prostitution!

Forgot the link for N. Ireland

www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-67802849

To me, Nuala McGovern seemed quite hostile, with the usual (these days) Woman's Hour comments like "That's one opinion", and "I don't have Amnesty International here [to refute your assertions]". Is she against the Nordic Model, or is it an interviewing style designed to allow the interviewee to make her points clearly? It felt very much as if Ash Regan's statements were constantly being undermined or belittled as just one opinion, and that there were more expert people who opposed them.

I've noticed this sort of thing before, in interviews relating to gender issues.

This is being opposed by Scotland for Decrim an org made up of past and active sex workers:

https://scotlandfordecrim.org/

The Nordic Model (what Regan is proposing) is also opposed by Amnesty Int, The World Health Org, Human Rights Watch, UNAIDS, Freedom United (an int. anti-slavery org), PICUM (org re the rights and safety of migrants in Europe), GAATW (Global Alliance against Traffic in Women), HIV Scotland, Scotland for Decrim and other sex worker orgs such as Scottish based Scot-Pep.

https://decrimnow.org.uk/open-letter-on-the-nordic-model/
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In 2022 Belgium became the first European country to pass complete decriminalisation (the model all the above support), showing that the Nordic Model isn't the only "modern" option to discuss.

Also going to leave this here. Since N.Ireland passed the Nordic Model back in 2015 (very easily given the power and support from their Church) there has been one conviction of paying for sex in a decade. Yes, one (sentence was a donation of their own choice to the court). Turns out it's very difficult to enforce and sexworkers are not willing to snitch on their clients. Unless you want cameras installed in every sex worker's bedroom it's very difficult to enforce (and very expensive attempting to as well).

I see AR also wants a 6 month prison sentence for this, well good luck for that too since Scottish (and Britain as a whole) prisons are bursting at the seams and prisons are needing to let prisoners out early.

"Ash Regan on fire here."

She hasn't always been top of her game and has been the subject of ridicule on the topic...

She was excellent.