Should prostitution be legalised?
The most feminist government in the history of Malta, as many Labour politicians boast, is pushing to legislate and legalise prostitution.
This, ironically, goes against women’s dignity. By this they are rendering women an object of lust, an object to satisfy men’s sexual desires and also an object in the hands of their pimps.
Had prostitution to be legalised first and foremost the government should ensure that other laws are strengthened, as well as encouraging and ensuring gender equality especially in relation to pay. Laws that should be strengthened are those that give the police the strength and right to prosecute. Employment laws and criminal laws should also be strengthened.
The current situation is a free for all. At the moment loitering for the scope of prostitution is a criminal offence. Prostitution or the person who avails of the service is not breaking the law. The government is proposing that the prostitute who sells the service should be criminally prosecuted. This, with the scope to eradicate prostitution.
Should it be legalised it should protect the woman not the other way round. It is already undignifying in itself for the sex worker, let alone making her a criminal. First of all, the woman who opts to choose this ‘profession’ should do so voluntarily or out of choice and not forced into it. She should operate with a licence after certain criteria are met. All other professionals are regulated by law, why shouldn’t prostitution too? Isn’t prostitution the oldest profession? One might argue that prostitution shouldn’t be put on the same level as the other professions, I might agree, but aren’t they offering a service like the other professionals?
My argument is that the prostitute should be regulated under Employment Law, pay taxes and National Insurance as well as VAT. She should be subjected to spot checks of her own personal health and the premises from where she operates, if any, should be up to standard and hygienic.
The prostitute should also be protected and have reassurance that if she suffers abuse or something happens to her she would find the law and legal structures on her side. She would have a right to render a service without being abused in the course of her work.
I agree that something should be done about prostitution, not because of black economy, but because women have rights and that their rights should be protected. Everyone of us has dignity after all. I am a great believer in equality and human rights. I cannot agree with a law that perpetrates a woman to be a criminal when offering a service and the person who buys the service will not. It is discriminatory to say the least. The least that can be done is that the law is equal to both the ‘seller’ and the ‘buyer’.
As a person that believes in Social Justice and Human Rights, as well as the Nationalist Party, are more in favour of the Nordic model which gives dignity to women as persons as opposed to what the government is proposing. Hoping to find a solution suitable for Malta I hope that common sense prevails.
It seems that the discussion is that prostitution should be legalised. The question is how not if.
“Should it be legalised it should protect the woman not the other way round. It is already undignifying in itself for the sex worker, let alone making her a criminal”