A law that entered into force on Wednesday allows prostitutes to benefit from rights in matters of status, social protection, health like the other self -employed workers.
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They would be 3,000 in Belgium according to more or less official estimates, seven or eight times more according to studies carried out in the field: occasional or regular, sex workers (TDS) live, in any case , a revolution from the 1 er June. A law passed in March by deputies and entry into force on Wednesday allows them, in fact, to get out of illegality, to see their activity decriminalized and to benefit from rights in matters of status, social protection, health, etc.
These provisions, desired by the Federal Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, a Flemish liberal, make Belgium the first European state to adopt such measures, and the second in the world after New Zealand. In the future, prostitutes (women, in a proportion of 95 %) will have the same rights as other self -employed workers, including that of benefiting from social security, unemployment, access to care, a maternity leave, etc. And moreover, “all third parties who support their activity can no longer be prosecuted, except in the event of abnormal profit”, underlines the UtSopi association, which has been campaigning since 2015 for the rights of prostitutes.
So far, a banker, an accountant, an insurer, a legal advisor or even a web designer supposed to have helped a prostitute could, in fact, be considered as the authors of an offense. Just like the owners of a housing that housed its activity. In the future, they will no longer fall under the law, unless they make excessive profits by demanding – as is frequently the case – rents superior to normal. “This is the end of the law of the jungle,” says Daan Bauwens, director of Utsopi.
“Workers must no longer be stigmatized”
granting a status to free prostitution, considering it as a work accompanied by rights and duties is the best way to fight against forced prostitution, judged Mr. Van Quickenborne. “Workers should no longer be stigmatized, exploited, dependent,” he argued. A minority of the Parliament has not approved its initiative, considering that by softening criminal law, on the contrary, we will facilitate the activity of human trafficking networks.
Often described as “an asylum of vagueness”, the kingdom deserves this qualification for the treatment which he reserved so far for prostitution. Régied by a law of the XIX e century prohibiting “soliciting, incentive to debauchery and pimpness”, it was in fact tolerated and visible of all in certain districts of Brussels, Antwerp or Liège. Developing their own regulations, cities and municipalities had also established, over time, their own regulations and decided to tax this activity, however presumed prohibited.
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