Prague Considers Legalizing Prostitution
Although prostitution operates in a "legal gray area" in the Czech Republic
, Deputy Mayor Rudolf Blaek seeks to legalize and regulate the sex industry throughout the country. Last week, the Prague City Council approved Blaek's proposal to legalize prostitution, license prostitutes, and contain prostitution to brothels and private homes.
Following the examples of Holland, Germany, Austria, and many other European countries, prostitutes would be licensed, receive annual health checks, and pay income taxes, and brothels are required to have permission from the municipality in order to operate.
"It's a possibility to step out of the black market and [for prostitutes] to include themselves in the standard business regime," Blaek told The Prague Post. "Regulating prostitution and embedding it in the legal system would give more effective tools so the scene would not be as uncontrolled as it is now."
Prague City Hall and the Interior Ministry made similar efforts to legalize prostitution in 2001 and 2003, but the Czech parliament refused to approve the law because it required theCzech Republic removing its signature from the 1950 UN Convention for the Suppression in the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.
Blaek and other officials feel that regulating and licensing the sex industry will cut down on the number of human trafficking and coerced sex workers in the Czech Republic, according to The Prague Post. But many human rights and anti-trafficking organizations argue that legalizing prostitution increases the number of women who trafficked illegally. Once prostitution is legalized in a country, demand increases and brothels trick, buy, or kidnap women from other countries to meet the demand.
According to a report by the Budapest Group, 80% of women in brothels in the Netherlands are trafficked from other countries. According to the International Organization for Migration, in the Netherlands alone, over 70% of trafficked women were from Central and Eastern European Countries. In 2001, the European Court ruled that prostitution was an economic activity, thus allowing women from the EU and former Communist countries to obtain permits as workers in the Dutch sex industry if they can prove they are self-employed. Under this ruling, human traffickers could smuggle in far more foreign women than before. Thus, many experts call the Netherlands a failed experiment in regulating prostitution.
In addition, a report released earlier this year by the Czech Interior Ministry stated that the Czech Republic is a destination country for sex workers from Russia, Ukraine, and Slovakia, and a source of sex workers for Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.
Laura Agustn, author ofSex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, said, "None of the systems are effective... Vast numbers of people who have the right to register with governments don't, and undocumented migrants are always excluded from these programs. In Europe, at least half of those working in prostitution are migrants."
While the Czech Republic aims to improve the lives of sex workers by legalizing and regulating prostitution, examples such as the Netherlands and Germany illustrate that legalizing prostitution is a slippery slope that may increase human trafficking from other countries.
By: Rebecca Baird-RembaRead more international news at www.allmediany.com! Prague Considers Legalizing ProstitutionBy: Rose
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