P4P in France

More than 60 years after Paris shut its famed maisons closes, or brothels, an MP from President Sarkozy's UMP party is campaigning to legalise them again.

Chantal Brunel, who was appointed last month to head the national watchdog on sexual equality, is arguing that crime would be cut and sex workers would benefit from sexual services centres similar to those run by most of France's neighbours.

A national poll by the CSA agency found that 59% of the French public approved the reopening of the regulated brothels that were a fixture of French life and culture until they were abolished in 1946. The proposal was supported by 70% of men and 49% of women. Only 13% of women were opposed, with 38% undecided, according to the poll for Le Parisien newspaper.

The idea is not to go back to the situation before 1946. I propose that we should consider the creation of places where the purchase of sexual services would be possible with medical, legal and financial protection, Ms Brunel said. Her campaign is outlined in a book to be published this month and comes after controversial results from a previous attempt to curb prostitution.

A tough law introduced by Sarkozy in 2002, when he was Interior Minister, created an offence of passive soliciting, allowing police to charge any woman deemed by her appearance to be seeking custom in public, even if she makes no approach to potential clients.

The Sarkozy law has resulted in the removal of prostitutes from the boulevards of Paris and other towns, driving them to more dangerous back streets, parks and on to the internet, campaigners say.

Ms Brunel is part of a working group at the Interior Ministry that is assessing the impact of the law and looking at policies among France's neighbours. Her proposal has yet to elicit a response from the Government.

Dozens of French sex workers proclaiming themselves proud to be prostitutes marched to protest a lawmaker's proposal to legalize brothels in France, arguing that such a law would deny them the freedom to work on their own.

A lawmaker in France's governing party has proposed reopening brothels just over six decades after they were banned in order to move prostitutes off the streets and provide them with medical, financial and legal protection.

The protesters say the proposal limits their options to make their own decisions — and are demanding, instead, a repeal of a 2003 law that outlaws solicitation.

The men and women marched through Paris' Left Bank, many dressed in their skimpy work attire. Some carried signs reading, You sleep with us, you vote against us.

We are workers and we want the choice to work as we want, said Thierry Schaffauser, 27, a sex worker from Paris now living in London. For doctors, they can work for a company or they can be independent. I think the importance is to let people choose how they want to work.

Brothels were legally outlawed in France in 1946. The 2003 law tightened restrictions against prostitution by making solicitation punishable with two months in prison and a euro3,750 ($5,000) fine.

A French lawmaker wants to reopen brothels, outlawed in France since 1946, in order to protect prostitutes from predatory pimps and exploitation. But the sex workers say no thanks.

All of the prostitutes are against the reopening of the brothels, said Janine Mossuz-Lavau, a sociologist and expert on sexuality and prostitution.

A 2003 law introduced by then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, which made passive public solicitation a punishable crime, is partly to blame for the impasse. Criminalizing activities around prostitution, which itself is legal for anyone over 18, sent workers underground to massage parlors and bars, but also away from the city centers, to peripheral areas, the woods and the Internet. It rendered exercising this profession much more dangerous since workers found themselves isolated, Mossuz-Lavau said.

Almost seven years to the day that parliament adopted that law in March 2003, Chantal Brunel, a member of Sarkozy's UMP party who had voted for it, announced she wants to change the government's response to prostitution. She envisions reopening the brothels as spaces where workers would be safe from human trafficking and violence, treated with dignity and would even receive medical care. An estimated 59 percent of French citizens support the idea, according to a poll released last month.

But the sex workers' union, which represents more than 250 prostitutes in France, is adamantly opposed to government meddling in its business and would rather maintain as much independence over its members' livelihoods as possible.

Tiphaine Besnard, a union spokeswoman said: Our elected officials ... are doomed to repeat the same failures if they do not consult the people who live prostitution daily and know all the consequences of their policies, the union said in a March press release. We alone possess the expertise on our lives.

Among the reasons the union cites for opposing the government's proposal is the fear that brothel keepers who want to receive a cut of their proceeds would exploit the workers. Plus, the union argues, mandatory testing for sexually transmitted diseases could lead to discriminatory policies that might bar those infected from working. Instances of HIV in the pornography industry has led politicians to ask if they should be doing more to police that industry -- a scenario prostitutes would like to avoid. They are also against a system that might divide workers into camps of regular brothel workers and others who refuse to work within that system.

French lawmakers will next week test France's long history of liberal attitudes toward sex by introducing a bill outlawing prostitution.

Lawmakers from all parties represented in the National Assembly, France's lower house, will on Tuesday present the bill to outlaw prostitution, said Guy Geoffroy of the ruling UMP party.

Prostitution is not illegal in France though several linked activities are, including soliciting, procuring and operating a brothel, while paying for sex with someone under the age of 18 is banned.

Sex workers' groups denounced the proposal as an attack on their rights and this week protested in front of the National Assembly against the bill.

The bill follows recommendations from a cross-party parliamentary commission that said criminalisation is the best path to reducing prostitution in France, as countries that have regulated this activity saw it increase. Earlier this year, the commission recommended imposing sentences of up to six months in prison and a $4,040 fine on clients of prostitutes.

An estimated 20,000 people work as prostitutes in France.

France's parliament has backed a proposal to make payment for sex a crime punishable by fines and prison.

The National Assembly approved by a show of hands a cross-party, non-binding resolution which is due to be followed by a bill.

Six-month prison sentences and fines of 3,000 Euros (£2,580) are envisaged for customers of prostitutes.

Some campaigners reject the bill, advocating prostitutes' rights instead.

Around 20,000 people are believed to be working as prostitutes in France.

Guy Geoffroy, an MP from the ruling UMP party who sits on the commission, said France's political parties had reached a consensus on the issue because it was a matter of republican ethics. Nine out of 10 prostitutes were victims of trafficking, he ludicrously claimed. From now on prostitution is regarded from the point of view of violence against women and that has become unacceptable for everyone, Geoffroy added.

Comment: Monsieur Geoffroy le Con

9th December 2011. From Alan

If you're looking for words to describe the absurd M. Geoffroy, twat can usefully be translated as con.