Council of Europe P. Assembly resolution 1579 recommend a human rights approach instead moralistic; people's decisions and choices should respect. Member states should avoid policies which force sex workers underground and making them more vulnerable; instead they should seek to empower them.

Elias, Finland,

On the backround of Swedish law are thinkings of such radical feminists theorists as Valerie Solanas, Andrea Dworkin, Sheila Jeffreys.According them man is always bad and woman god, man is always guilty and women victim. It's unfortunate if main stream feminism also becomes tainted by Dworkin etc

Elias, Finland,

It's erroneous directly conflate prostitution and trafficking. Voluntary adult sexwork is not automatically slave trade. Trafficking must be dealt separately from trade of sexual services in legislation.

Elias, Finland,

For the protection and safeguarding the human rights voluntary adult sexwork must under no circumstances be confused with trafficking. Swedish law undermine every people's right to self-determination and sexual autonomy and increase vulnerability especially for women working in sex area.

Elias, Finland,

Within trafficking 75 % is slavery work in other areas than the sex industry; agriculture, construction, household services, restaurant services. How does customer know the difference between coerced/not-coerced in these areas? It´s not logical to argue for Swedish law as relevant for trafficking.

Elias, Finland,

If you believe that Sweden’s law is effective against trafficking - should we then criminalize everybody who hires maids or eat in restaurant or employ help to agriculture on the grounds
that there exists people who are forced to do slavery work in these areas?

Elias, Finland,

If there are really 18,000 trafficked women prostitutes in the UK, or even 6,000, how is it that Operation Pentameter 2 which raided 882 establishments over a six month period, could find only 167?
Either the police are very inept at finding these women, or their estimates are highly exaggerated.

Dave, Southampton, UK

Great idea - in theory.

Now, just how do they propose to enforce this, in practice?

Gill, Southampton, UK

This is a joke. There's no strict liability here, so they have to show the man knew the girl's circumstances. They can't charge a man with rape without showing that he knew she was being forced, so what's their plan here?
Coerced? Trafficked? how does the man know?
Badly thought out rubbish.

Kevin, London, UK

So Smith, Harperson et al want to 'tackle the demand for prostitution'? If they're making an offer, I think I'll pass.
Or are they setting up a new government department to provide wives for us single men?
Incidentally, I abhor the idea of people trafficking, for sexual purposes or otherwise.

colin, london, england

This proposal demonstrates the lack of leadership Brown has provided. How is a 'customer' going to know the difference between someone who is coerced into prostitution and a person who 'chooses' to be a prostitute? I can see a lot of challenges to such a regulation under the Human Rights Act 1998

chuckles johnson, london, uk

i agree with james in some ways,men such as brown has a responsibility to ensure that women who choose prostitution have a safe and secure environment in which to work free from stigma, a stigma that brown and his feminazis perpetuate

peter, bury, uk

Why do we just have a Minister For Women? Why not one for men as well? After all, sex discrimination is a two way street!

Chrissy, Newmarket, England

I think that to pay for sex is for me a non starter, but you can bet a few MP's get caught in the trap.

they won't like that.

Yachydda, Wrexham, Wales

Law that criminalize all purchase of sexual services including all transactions and all payment is the very best example of law, in which everything possible what is possible to go wrong, is gone wrong.

Swedish law's "success" have been severely criticised in EU and in Sweden too.

Elias, Finland,

i live next door to a brothel in a nice area of London. It is a bit gruesome but i think it is a necessary evil for i can see what kind of guys come in and out of it. it is the only way they can get sex...Brothels should be legalised but sex slaves have to be protected.

maud, london, uk

The problem with the forced sex trade could be solved by the police eliminating it as they are paid to do, and the punter could then have some confidence that he wasn't supporting it, instead of getting the buck passed to him!

Graham Rounce, London, UK

Law that criminalize all purchase of sexual services including all transactions and all payment is the very best example of law, in which everything possible what is possible to go wrong, is gone wrong.

Swedish law's "success" have been severely criticised in EU and in Sweden too.

Elias, Finland,

If you were a punter (Im not myself!), how would you tell if a woman was being co-oerced if there was no pimp evident?

How will this affect any former labour MP's visiting Clapham Common? Will they still be allowed to go with no charges whilst the rest of us would face the beak in the morning?

LEE, Essex, UK

I strongly suspect that the devil will be in the detail, and that the government's proposals will be vigorously debated in both the Commons and the Lords.
However, this appears to be a substantial improvement on the absurdity of trying to impose Sweden's abolitionist legislation in this country.

Dave, Southampton, UK

Given that most pimps are really drug dealers, they will say that they do not 'employ' these women, merely sell drugs to them. difficult to make this law stick when junkies have a strong psychological bond to their 'dealers/pimps'

frank, swindon, uk

Gordon Brown stating that it is 'wrong for men to pay for sex' is the best thing he's said this year. Brown is clearly a man of courage. It's high time we heard less about men's rights and more about men's responsibilities to women.

I can't wait to read the ensuing whine from the infantile johns...

James, London,

Why don't those feminists in the labour party ( Harman, Jaqui Smith,)get real. Sex is expensive and men have to pay one way or another, sometimes it's cheaper to pay. Dating, buying dinner etc is paying for sex as the end result is hopefully the same, will this be outlawed by the Labour Party too?

Rory Wiltshire, Maidenhead, UK