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A very good paper was published this week by the American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law on their website rightswork.org. This document is 17 pages long, but worth everyone's time and attention. It's a very complete, comprehensive analysis of the Swedish anti-prostitution law that squarely addresses the deliberate deceptions the Swedish government has fostered in its review of the law and its misleading statements about its effectiveness. The author, Ann Jordan, considers the Swedish model to be a failed experiment in social engineering in its attempts to convince men to change their behaviour (that is, to stop buying sex) through fear of arrest and intense public stigma; to force sex workers to find another way to make a living; and eliminate trafficking into forced prostitution as well as the activities of migrant sex workers. She addresses the rights of prostitutes to work safely and how those rights are endangered in Sweden to the extent that the law may be seen not only to be against prostitution but also to increase the vulnerability of migrant workers to abuse because it creates a fertile climate for their exploitation. A brief but clear analysis of the 2010 Bedford decision and the 2012 Bedford Appeal result forms a significant part of the paper. The author recommends that any state considering anti-prostitution legislation should consider the Bedford decisions with utmost care and that sex workers in places where their work is outlawed should also consider the decisions and how they might help form their arguments for legal reform. The full article is available as a PDF here.