2023-09-14 14:34:41
European Union
Parliament wants to sanction clients of prostitutes
The resolution was approved by 234 MEPs, while 297 voted no or abstained. The sponsors of the text believe that the gaps within the EU favor organized crime.
PublishedSeptember 14, 2023, 4:34 p.m.
The European Parliament “calls on Member States to ensure that requesting, accepting or obtaining a sexual act from a person, in exchange for remuneration, a promise of remuneration, of an advantage in kind or of a promise of such an advantage, be punished criminally”.
photo d’illustration 20min/Celia Nogler
The European Parliament voted on Thursday a text which advocates fighting once morest prostitution by penalizing clients, a policy adopted in particular by France and which is the subject of an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights. The non-binding resolution was approved by 234 MEPs (175 once morest, 122 abstentions) in a vote that divided all political groups during a plenary session in Strasbourg.
Supported by German MEP Maria Noichl (Socialists & Democrats group), the text encourages the countries of the European Union to adopt the “Nordic model” – Sweden having been the first, in 1999, to penalize buyers of sexual services . This model has also been adopted by Ireland and France.
Also punish pimps
Parliament ‘calls on Member States to ensure that requesting, accepting or obtaining a sexual act from a person, in exchange for remuneration, a promise of remuneration, ‘an advantage in kind or a promise of such an advantage, be punished criminally’.
He also advocates penalizing pimps. But calls not to penalize prostitutes themselves, as countries such as Croatia or Lithuania do.
While prostitution is legal and regulated in certain countries (Germany, Netherlands, Austria in particular), the text considers that the differences in approaches in the EU favor organized crime. “This report highlights the way forward: creating exit programs and alternatives, eradicating poverty and social exclusion, dismantling stereotypes and inequalities, reducing demand by tackling clients,” said Maria Noichl following the vote. A similar text was voted on by the European Parliament in February 2014.
Conversely, Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld (Renew Europe, centrists and liberals) deplored “a purely ideological resolution”, which “will do nothing to protect the rights and safety of sex workers”.
Criminalizing clients increases the vulnerability of sex workers
Thirteen NGOs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, grouped in a “European coalition for the rights and inclusion of sex workers”, called at the beginning of September to reject this report. They argue in particular that the incrimination of clients increases the precariousness of sex workers and their vulnerability to violence and infectious diseases.
They also recall that the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible the petition filed by 260 sex workers, who want the repeal of the French law of 2016. The Court must rule on the merits in the coming months .
(AFP)
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