The law which penalizes the clients of prostitutes is well applied. Since April, 250 have been fined. The impact on pimping remains to be demonstrated.
After several years of repression, France has decided: the state no longer wants prostitution. Since April, paid sex has been totally prohibited. All customers are exposed to 1,500 euros fine. On the occasion of the European day against trafficking in human beings, Laurence Rossignol recalls the new legislation. On October 18, it is launching an information campaign aimed at customers. The controversy has not subsided.
No more pathologies
It took more than two years of debate before the law was passed by Parliament. From now on, a prostitute’s client is liable to a fine of several thousand euros. But above all, the offense is class 5. It will therefore be entered in the criminal record of the accused. A measure supposed to discourage. In a press release, Laurence Rossignol is also pleased with its effectiveness. Since April, 250 people have been caught in the act. “We know that many more people have given up on buying sex,” she writes.
But as associations and health professionals explained at the time, prostitutes are the first victims of this law. STRASS augured for example an “increase in physical assault, rape, risk of sexually transmitted infections, and consequently psychological distress”. Médecins du Monde has also announced more isolation of prostitutes. “To retain their customers, they will have to hide all the more,” said the NGO. Penalizing the client therefore only leads to further estrangement from associations and care.
An additional investment
The speech of the Minister of Families, Children and Women’s Rights is quite different. She welcomes a measure that aims to put an end to human trafficking. Most of the people in prostitution are women, foreigners, who suffer from their situation. “To give up buying a sexual act is to give up feeding the trafficking networks”, according to Laurence Rossignol. Except that nothing proves, at the present time, that the law has made it possible to fight against pimping. Not to mention that France was recently pinned down by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights. The organization deplores the lack of firmness on the part of the authorities.
The Minister of Women’s Rights still wants to support prostitutes. From next January, their support and reintegration will be better funded. Associations will receive 60% additional grants. Laurence Rossignol has also planned to visit one of them on October 18: the nest.
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