{{Paying for sex in France may soon become a criminal offence, according to a forthcoming bill whose details were made public this week.}}<\/p>\n
The proposed legislation would also overturn a 2003 law that penalises prostitutes overtly offering their services, rules that were intended to reduce the presence of sex workers in the streets but instead led prostitutes to \u201cdress down\u201d while plying their trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to turn the law on its head,\u201d said Socialist Member of Parliament Maud Olivier, who authored a report that will be the basis of the bill. \u201cProstitutes are victims and should not be treated like criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law is intended to reduce violence towards prostitutes and to get it into the general mindset that paying for sexual services is not acceptable. We need to destroy the idea that prostitution is a happy trade,\u201d she said, adding that of the estimated 40,000 sex workers in France, 80 percent are women and 90 percent are immigrants.<\/p>\n
The bill, which is due to be debated by the National Assembly (lower house) and the Senate starting in November, sets out progressive fines of up to 1,500 euros for a first offence, to 7,500 euros and six months’ imprisonment for repeat offenders.<\/p>\n
It would also give prostitutes who are victims of sexual violence easier access to legal residency in France, while opening the doors to suing pimps who force them to sell their bodies.<\/p>\n
The move was welcomed by campaign group \u201cMouvement du Nid\u201d, an association that helps prostitutes find justice in the case of sexual violence and exploitation by criminal networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen who sell their bodies for sex are not harming anyone and they shouldn\u2019t be seen as criminals,\u201d said the Mouvement du Nid\u2019s General Secretary Gregoire Thery.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the harm to the individuals involved and to society in general is committed by clients who are sexually violent towards prostitutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis law will protect women. For the first time in French history it gives them the opportunity to tell clients who are violent or make unwelcome demands that they can be arrested and punished for committing an illegal act.\u201d<\/p>\n
france24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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