World P4P News

The government  of the Australian state of Victorian will move to decriminalise sex work and regulate the sex industry through standard business industry laws following a review that heard the current system left many unprotected.

The review was conducted by the Reason party leader, Fiona Patten, in 2020 and is currently before the state government. The government is expected to release the report and table proposed legislation by the end of the year.

The change would see Victoria join the Northern Territory and New South Wales as jurisdictions that have decriminalised sex work. The consumer affairs minister, Melissa Horne, said decriminalisation was the best option to make sex workers safer and to reduce the stigma and fear of criminal repercussions. She said:

Sex work is a legitimate form of work and should be regulated through standard business laws, like all other industries in the state. Decriminalising sex work in Victoria will ensure it's safe work 203 a basic human right that everyone deserves. We're working towards this as a priority and will have more to say in due course.

Victoria currently has a licensing system for sex work that is regulated by the police. It requires service providers who operate a brothel or an escort agency and sex workers who operate independently to apply for a licence and be registered through the department of consumer affairs. Sex workers who work at a brothel do not have to register.

The move is based upon the realisation that when rules prove too restrictive, and sex workers end up working outside of the rules, then the sex workers are endangered as they are unable to call for help from the police lest they be arrested themselves.

Apple on Monday updated its App Store Review Guidelines to emphasise some existing policies and add new requirements for apps. One of those changes, guideline 1.1.4, bans 'hookup' apps that include pornography or are used to facilitate prostitution.

The revised guidelines, as Pink News noted, would ban overtly sexual or pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.

Apple's new rules around dating apps won't affect non-sexy platforms like Grindr and Scruff.

The city of Amsterdam said this week it would consider the Haven-Stad district as another possible location for a high-rise erotic center that could serve as an new location for sex work in the capital.

The council does not like the high profile red light area in De Wallen and has previously suggested  seven other locations including Amstel III (Zuidoost), Arenapoort (Zuidoost), Sloterdijk 2 Zuid (Nieuw-West), Sloterdijk Noord (Nieuw-West), Zuid / Rai (Zuid), Hamerkwartier (Noord), Eenhoorngebied (Oost).

In a market survey presented by the Amsterdam Mayor, it was also revealed that the erotic center should have about a hundred workplaces for sex workers, some of which would be windows similar to those in the Red Lights district. The workers will also have access to private break rooms which only the workers can access. Several bookable hotel rooms will be considered for visitors who previously made online appointments. Additionally, two catering establishments, a workspace for medical care providers and erotic entertainment facilities were planned.

A consultancy project will be carried out over the next three months to determine how best to proceed with the project.

A Canadian alliance of 25 sex worker rights groups has launched a court challenge to that country's laws making sex work illegal.

The Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform is challenging the sex work ban on Constititional grounds, saying that the country's laws violate sex workers' constitutional rights to security, personal autonomy, life, liberty, free expression, free association, and equality.

The new challenge comes about a month after a petition to repeal anti-sex work laws in Canada launched by rights activist Rysa Kronebusch appeared to gather enough signatures to force a debate on the issue in parliament.

In 2014, the Canadian parliament which was then ruled by the country's Conservative Party passed a law that made purchasing sexual services a crime, as well as outlawing several other activities surrounding sex work. When the Liberal Party, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, won a majority later that year, it pledged to review the law, but never did.