World P4P News

An organization representing Ontario adult entertainment businesses submitted a proposal at city hall that would see legalized brothels operating alongside strip clubs in the province as part of a year-long trial.

The recommendation came in a report prepared for the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada's Ontario branch by Rudi Czekalla.

Under the plan, strip clubs, which are already zoned for sexual entertainment, would have the exclusive right to sell all sexual services.

Association president Tim Lambrinos said that if prostitution is going to be legalized anyway, it only makes sense to do it in strip clubs, which are already regulated and, he added, generally safe.

As part of his report, Czekalla commissioned a survey of exotic dancers from across Ontario. Two thirds opposed any plan that would see sexual services sold in the clubs where they work.

Dangerous new legislation that conflates trafficking with sex work , and has the potential to impact diplomatic relations, has been introduced in the United States Congress.

Representative Randy Hultgren, an Illinois Republican in his first term, has introduced legislation that would amend the Trafficking in Victims Protection Act of 2000 to restrict foreign aid going to countries where prostitution is legal. Hultgren claims that legal prostitution leads to human trafficking.

Hultgren's bill would force the State Department to take a country's prostitution laws into consideration when determining which tier it belongs to in the annual Trafficking in Persons report. The TIP report assigns countries a tier according to how well the United States believes they are complying with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons (a low tier can result in sanctions). Hultgren told the Washington Examiner that he is meeting with the State Department in the next few weeks to discuss the bill, and his comments reveal that he is a little unclear on the bill's impact, and vague on its objective. He said:

I haven't felt a lot of pushback. but just some questioning of how will this impact the rankings and things. I'm not sure. But I know what we've got to do is do everything we can to protect children who are getting pulled into this, women who are getting pulled into this.

On May 21st, the bill was introduced to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs as H.R.4703. The bill's full title -- To amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 relating to determinations with respect to efforts of foreign countries to reduce demand for commercial sex acts under the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking -- aligns it to the currently fashionable end demand approach taken by many abolitionist organisations. Working to end trafficking, according to the sponsors of this bill, is not enough; the demand for commercial sex must, too, be abolished.

The congressman is associated with Exodus Cry , a faith-based anti-sex trafficking organization, which is publicising his bill at their website and encouraging supporters to back it -- members of Exodus Cry are currently at the World Cup in Brazil, leading prayers and outreach actions based on the debunked notion that large sporting events lead to an increase in trafficking.

Officials have officially shut a massive prostitution complex in Indonesia's second-largest city amid protests by sex workers, who said their livelihoods were being destroyed.

 The mayor of Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini, announced the closure of the Dolly prostitution complex in a ceremony at the city's Islamic Center. Around 100 miserable locals signed a statement supporting the closure of one of Southeast Asia's largest red-light districts.

The government plans to provide $425 to each of about 1,500 sex workers to help them start a new life.

Hundreds of prostitutes and others who said their livelihoods depend on the sex trade blocked streets leading to the complex in protest of its closure.

Sex workers are staging rallies across Canada against the Harper government's prostitution bill, saying its crackdown on customers and pimps would put lives at risk.

In Montreal, a group gathered for a dancing protest at Peace Park.

Dozens of demonstrators also gathered around red umbrellas - the sex trade's symbol of independence - in a downtown Toronto park. They called for the bill introduced in Parliament this month to be dumped and prostitution decriminalized.

The legislation would criminalize the purchase of sexual services, take aim at those who benefit from prostitution and outlaw the sale of sex near places where children gather.

Jean MacDonald of advocacy group Maggie's says the proposed law would threaten prostitutes' safety. She says the bill is a gift to sexual predators that would as under the old system push sex workers to ply their trade in out-of-the-way areas where they could be attacked.

Dozens turned out at a rally in Montreal, and events are planned for Vancouver and several other cities.

Buying sex or trying to sell it in public areas where there are people under 18 can be found illegal and punishable by up to five years in prison under a sweeping new anti-prostitution law introduced in Canada's parliament. The government claims that the new law promotes human dignity and equality, and protects vulnerable people.

A new offence of advertising sexual services would also be created, and police would be given new powers to seize voyeuristic materials, on obtaining permission from a judge.

Previous anti-prostitutions laws were struck down by the Supreme Court which found that these laws were unconstitutional and generated an unsafe environment for sex workers.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay called the new law a Canadian model. He claimed the bill would recognize:

The inherent dangers associated with prostitution, including many of the other real challenges in the country, including poverty, violence, addiction, mental health. And whatever we do legislatively will of course be accompanied with programming aimed at helping women, predominantly women, exit prostitution.

A lawyer who helped persuade the Supreme Court to strike down the country's main prostitution laws said the new law doesn't answer the court's concerns about safety of sex workers. Alan Young, who teaches law at Osgoode Hall Law School, said keeping prostitutes out of areas in which people under 18 are found, while also banning advertising of sexual services over the Internet, leaves them with no safe place.

At the end of the day it still raises the question of what is a safe forum for someone to legally sell sexual services. I think the government position is 'we don't want to provide a safe forum.' But that isn't really their call anymore.

The French Commission Nationale Consultative des Droits de l'Homme (CNCDH) has released its opinion on the proposals for amending the country's sex work laws. The CNCDH includes representatives from many of the country's major human rights NGOs including Inter-LGBT , Amnesty International and the Human Rights League . The national sex workers union, STRASS (Syndicat du Travail Sexuel), along with other organisations working in the field of sex worker rights and HIV prevention have welcomed the position taken by the Commission. The organisations are particularly supportive of the Commission's comments on the laws against passive soliciting, which are currently in place in France, and the proposal to introduce laws criminalising the clients of sex workers.

France introduced a passive soliciting law in 2003, which made it illegal simply to look like a sex worker in locations known for prostitution. The CNCDH was firm in its criticism of the passive solicitation laws. It argued that the law has had a detrimental effect on the health of sex workers and their working conditions. Forcing sex workers to effectively become invisible to avoid arrest and prosecution has increased their isolation and left them more vulnerable to violence. STRASS continues to fight against the passive solicitation laws and demands that it be repealed immediately.

The CNCDH is also critical of the proposals to introduce laws criminalising the clients of sex workers. The CNCDH argues that criminalising clients will force sex workers to work from more remote areas, their ability to negotiate with clients will be reduced and given the potential reduction in client numbers their ability to refuse clients may also be compromised. The CNCDH also points out that criminalising clients will make it more difficult for health and social support organisations to offer services to sex workers given the move to more isolated working spaces. All of these factors, according to the CNCDH, will have a serous impact on the health and rights of sex workers and make them more vulnerable to violence.

The proposed law amending France's prostitution laws (to repeal passive solicitation and introduce the criminalisation of clients) passed its reading in the National Assmebly in December 2013 and is currently in the Senate where it has not yet been debated or voted on. The CNCDH points out that there is nothing in the proposed Bill, which is designed to improve or further the rights of sex workers in France. The Commission is critical of this failure and notes that France should not delay further in supporting sex workers and ensuring they have effective access to rights.

The Commission is also careful to distinguish between sex work and trafficking in human beings, which are often conflated in French policy and discourse. The CNCDH argues that any discussion or policy on human trafficking must be extended to all forms of economic exploitation and that preventing trafficking should not be used simply as a cover for criminalising sex work.

Prostitution and illegal drugs are contributing around £10bn a year to the British economy, according to official data.

More than half of that, £5.3bn, is attributable to prostitution, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Illegal drugs and prostitution are worth 0.7% of GDP, which is roughly the same proportion as agriculture, gambling and accommodation services which includes hotels, bed and breakfasts and caravan parks. They are worth more than advertising, which is 0.5% of GDP, and double the contribution of real estate activities, at 0.35%.

The contribution of prostitution to GDP was calculated using a number of estimates, including the clients per prostitute per week based on Dutch practise, the average price per visit and the cost of room rental and clothing.

An international association of Catholic nuns has launched a public awareness campaign to combat the mythical human trafficking associated with world sports events, this time the World Cup in Brazil.

The nuns will use social media, billboards and rallies in host cities to draw attention to the heightened risk of exploitation of sex workers and job-seekers in general. Sister Gabriella Bottani said at a press conference in the Vatican:

The World Cup is a unique occasion to invite everyone to reflect on the value of life.

Bottani said her association, Talitha Kum, a Biblical phrase meaning Little girl, get up! was also conducting training courses to spot signs of supposed trafficking.

The clergywoman claimed that for previous World Cups in Germany and South Africa, the level of exploitation had gone up by 30 percent and 40% respectively. But at least she didn't repeat the usual claims that there would be a 40,000 band itinerant band of trafficked sex workers turn up for the event.

Nearly one in six Danish men have admitted that they have paid for sex on at least one occasion in their lives.

This means that 16% of males in the country, between 260,000 and 285,000 people, have been a sex customer at some stage. 30% of men say they have visited a prostitute just once, while 9% admitted to paying for sex more than 50 times. On average, men who have paid for sex visit their first prostitute between the age of 24 and 25.

There are around 3,200 prostitutes working in Denmark, with about half of them said to be immigrants.

57% of Danes are against banning prostitution, while 25% are of the opinion that it should be illegal. When comparing the opinion of Danish men and women, more women support a ban. However, around 70% of those questioned did not feel a ban would make any difference.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is suing a brothel owner for opening a club bearing the initials DSK, the former IMF chief's widely used nickname.

Dominique Alderweireld, aka Dodo la Saumure , is set to open the Dodo Sex Klub in the town of Blaton in Belgium, where sex work and owning brothels are legal.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said they were suing Alderweireld for deliberately choosing a name that reproduces his (Strauss-Kahn's) initials which identify him to all.

Dodo la Saumure, who is currently facing charges in France of aggravated pimping and supplying prostitutes to Strauss-Kahn earlier told AFP that the name was a good publicity stunt. He said the name of the establishment, which will be staffed by seven girls, of whom one is a transsexual was commercially brilliant... as everybody talks about DSK.

Alderweireld has said he plans to open another sex establishment in Belgium called the Carlton, the name of a posh hotel in the northern French city of Lille where Strauss-Kahn attended sex parties.

After suffering eight years of recession, Puerto Rico is contemplating more than a hundred different proposals intended to jumpstart its sagging economy, including legal prostitution and marijuana use. Senator Maria Teresa Gonzalez told AP:

We are studying all alternatives and all possibilities. Change always brings inconvenience. I'm convinced that before we talk about something as dramatic and disastrous as layoffs, we have to consider other ideas.

Whether or not the government will actually move forward with such action is up in the air, as doing so would require public hearings, approval by the commonwealth's legislative branch, and the support of Govenor Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

Venusia, a Geneva massage parlor, is appealing to Switzerland's highest court over a 1,000-franc fine it received for advertising oral sex services without the use of a condom.

Authorities last year slapped Venusia with fines after it offered royal or imperial fellatio. Venusia's owner told 20 Minutes of that she didn't see why she should pay a fine. Prostitution is legal in Switzerland but subject to regulation, including that of using condoms for oral services:

In all the rest of Switzerland, natural or 'royal' fellatio can be mentioned, the owner. Furthermore, since the girls of the parlor are independent, they can do what they want inside the premises.