Sex workers' rights and the laws that govern them vary around the world. Despite being considered the world's oldest profession, the buying and selling of sexual services remains completely outlawed in many countries. However, sex worker rights advocates and human rights organizations have decried the criminalization of consensual sex work and urged governments to step in to mitigate the risk of exploitation. Some countries have found ways to embrace the industry through a variety of legal frameworks, including regulated legalization and targeting the clientele rather than the sex workers themselves.
In the countries that embrace the legalization framework, buying and selling sexual services is not only legal but also regulated by the government. In some of those places, operating brothels and soliciting sex from a sex worker is also legal. The regulations vary from country to country and can include requiring sex workers to register or restricting legal sex work in a particular region.
In some countries, sex work law varies by state or territory. In Australia, for example, sex work is only fully legal in Queensland, and sex workers and brothels are required to be licensed. In the United States, Nevada is the only state with legally regulated sex work. Escape your echo chamber.
Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. With the growth of online sex work, the legal market in the Netherlands has reached a crossroads. A recently proposed law would allow licensed sex workers to work from their homes but was met with a mixed reception from Dutch councils.
Traditional brothels are "increasingly being replaced by sex workers booking clients online and seeing them at home," said The Telegraph. A few Dutch cities already issue licenses for sex work operators to work from home. Still, many of the municipalities surveyed by NOS, the Netherlands' largest news organization, believed legalizing at-home sex work on a national scale would be a "nuisance" for their communities. The most globally prevalent sex work law framework is abolitionism.
