France bans paying for sex

Country divided over new law which fines clients of prostitutes

PARIS: French lawmakers have passed a controversial law that makes it illegal to pay for sex and

€ imposes fines of up to 3,750 (RM16,670) on prostitutes’ clients.

Around 60 sex workers staged a noisy protest outside parliament on Wednesday during the final debate on the Bill that will affect the livelihoods of at least 30,000 prostitutes in France, four in five of whom are foreign.

Some carried a banner reading “Don’t liberate me, I’ll take care of myself!” while another poster read in English, “Sex work is work”.

Backed by the Socialist government, the legislation has been nearly two and a half years in the making.

All European countries penalise pimping, but France will become only the fifth to punish the clients of prostitutes along with Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Britain.

Sweden in 1999 became the first country in the world to make it illegal to pay for sex, in a bid to lower demand.

In France, predominantly rightwing senators have opposed the ban on paying for sex, which will be

€ punishable by a 1,500 (RM6,670) fine for first offenders, increasing to € 3,750 for repeat offenders. But after previous debates in both chambers of parliament ended in deadlock, the lower house, dominated by the left, had the final say.

The proposal introduced in October 2013 has divided public opinion in France, prompting a group of 343 public figures to issue a manifesto asserting the right to use prostitutes.

The signatories, who included journalists, writers and actors, said they resented being depicted as “perverts or psychopaths” and refused to allow “deputies (to) legislate norms on our desires and our pleasures”.

Socialist lawmaker Maud Olivier, the architect of the Bill, has argued repeatedly that prostitutes should be seen as “victims and no longer as delinquents”.

The new law will supersede a little enforced 2003 measure penalising the solicitation of clients for sex.

“This law is essential to ending the idea that it is normal to buy someone’s body,” Olivier said.

“We will succeed in changing the mentality but new efforts are needed to raise awareness and to train police officers and magistrates.”

The new law will also require offenders to take a course to learn about the conditions faced by sex workers.