European Parliament

EU Parliament passes resolution: punish the client, not the prostitute

26 Feb 2014

EU countries should reduce the demand for prostitution by punishing the clients, not the prostitutes, says Parliament in a non-binding resolution passed on Wednesday. It stresses that prostitution violates human dignity and human rights, whether it is forced or voluntary, and calls on member states to find exit strategies and alternative sources of income for women who want to leave prostitution.

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“Rather than blanket legalisation – which has been a disaster in Holland and Germany – we need a more nuanced approach to prostitution, which punishes men who treat women’s bodies as a commodity, without criminalising those who are driven into sex work,” said Mary Honeyball (S&D, U.K), who drafted the resolution. “We send a strong signal that the European Parliament is ambitious enough to tackle prostitution head on rather than accepting it as a fact of life.”

The non-binding resolution was adopted by 343 votes to 139, with 105 abstentions.

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