World P4P News

Spain's Socialist Party (PSOE) has been defeated in its attempt to re-criminalize legal sex work in Spain. A controversial law it attempted to pass failed to gain parliamentary support among its allies in its ruling coalition.

The proposed law had been loudly opposed by sex workers, sex worker rights groups and the local adult industry.

The traditionally left-leaning PSOE was counting on the ultra-Catholic elements within the opposition right-leaning PP to provide some support for the law, but a critical mass of PP's parliamentarians withdrew their support from the reviled Abolition of Prostitution law.

The vote ended with 122 in favor, 184 against and 36 abstentions.

Sex workers pointed out that the original goal of the Only Yes Means Yes law -- which was an earlier law which some feminists in the PSOE mutated into a sex-work abolition bill -- was to enshrine the idea of consent in Spanish law, but that its backers ended up not criminalizing nonconsensual deep fakes and deplatforming consensual sex workers instead.

The decriminalisation of sex work in Belgium was approved by Federal Parliament on March 18th 2022 and came into effect on 1st June 2022. However, under the new law it remained illegal for sex workers to work under an employment contract. This left sex workers with the choice between self-employment or a semi-legal contract in a grey zone with no guaranteed rights or protection.

In response, the Belgian Labor, Health and Justice Cabinets worked with sex worker-led organisations to develop a labour law for sex work. On 2nd May 2024, this law was approved by Belgian federal Parliament. The law enables sex workers to work under an employment contract and gain access to social protection benefits.

The sex worker trade group, UTSOPI, wrote of the new law:

In the first place, this means access to social security: pension, unemployment, health insurance, family benefits, annual vacation, maternity leave, etc. At the same time, the law ensures that sex workers in the workplace are protected from work-related risks and not anyone can become an employer.

Central to the new law are the freedoms of sex workers: any sex worker may choose to refuse a client or a sexual act, interrupt an act or perform it however they wish. Those who wish to become employers must not have incurred convictions for serious crimes, must appoint a reference person for the sex worker's safety and provide an alarm button that immediately connects to the reference person.

Amsterdam City Council have instigated a new campaign, dubbed Stay Away , targeting people considering a stag party or pub crawling trip to Amsterdam. however the publicity seems to have inadvertently led to increased bookings for stag do trips.

The city's Stay Away campaign is aimed to deter British lads aged 18-35 from visiting, via targeting people who search for terms including stag party, Amsterdam or pub crawl Amsterdam with supposedly off-putting online ads.

One company which organises boozy trips to the Dutch capital saw quotes for holidays rocket 649% in just a day after news of the anti-lad advertising campaign began to circulate.

The marketing effort comes as the city moves to make it harder for visitors to get their hands on psychoactive substances and hop between strip clubs. In order to tackle anti-social behaviour and keep things calm, the city council is making it illegal to smoke cannabis on the street in the Red Light District from later this year. From mid-May lighting up will be forbidden in public spaces in the inner city between 4pm and 1am from Thursday to Sunday, while a ban on take-away cannabis sale is also being considered.

Meanwhile Dutch sex workers are not impressed by the Amsterdam initiative. They say they plan to protest against earlier closing times and plans to move them from the city's red light district to large erotic centres on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

A Thai government committee drafting a new law governing prostitution has agreed that voluntary sexual service without any criminal penalties should be allowed from sex workers of 20 years of age or greater.

Jintana Chanbamroong, head of the Department of Women's Affairs and Family Development at Social Development and Human Security Ministry, said after presiding over a meeting of the committee drafting the new law that public hearings both online and on-site were held in five cities including Bangkok, Chonburi and Hat Yai.

It is initially called the Draft Act for the Protection of Sexual Services B.E. 206 and is planned to replace the current Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act from 1996.

Sex workers will have rights and be entitled to welfare in the labour system without being identified as a sex worker. They will also have the right to fair compensation but must undergo health checks to ensure they are not infected with any contagious diseases. However prostitution that falls in the category of human trafficking, such as procurement or coercion, would still be a violation of the Human Trafficking Act.

Brothel operators will be required to not violate the conditions for protecting service providers who are their employees and only operate in specific zones, particularly not near educational institutions or places of worship. Also will be stipulated is that it is prohibited to engage in sexual relations with prostitutes under 20 years of age with those procuring and luring them into prostitution too being liable for criminal penalties.

This draft law is expected to be completed and will be tabled to the new government around August this year.

 

Update: Bill being drafted

16th March 2023. See article from thethaiger.com

The Thai government is now drafting a bill to legalise sex work to protect sex workers from exploitation. The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) has proposed the bill, which will also limit the minimum age to provide or buy the service

According to Narong Jaihan, a lecturer from the Faculty of Law at Thammasat University, sex workers under 20 will not be penalised, but legal action will be taken against business operators who employ them underage, as well as their parents.