FRANCE: MASKED PROSTITUTES PROTEST AGAINST ANTI-SOLICITING LAW THAT COULD CURTAIL THEIR BUSINESS

Record ID: 646634

  • Title: FRANCE: MASKED PROSTITUTES PROTEST AGAINST ANTI-SOLICITING LAW THAT COULD CURTAIL THEIR BUSINESS
  • Date: 7th November 2002
  • Summary: (U6) PARIS, FRANCE (5 NOVEMBER 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PROSTITUTES DEMONSTRATING WITH BANNER READING: "PROSTITUTION STOPPED, PROSTITUTES DEAD"; MV MASKED PROSTITUTE HOLDING BANNER; MV MASKED PROSTITUTES HOLDING BANNER; MV PROSTITUTE HOLDING MASK IN HER HAND (4 SHOTS) 0.28 2. (SOUNDBITE) (French) PROSTITUTE SAYING "We pay our taxes, the state gets money from us from our taxes and the fines we get, and now all of a sudden they want to take our jobs away from us, to prevent us from eating, lodging, living, surviving in a word. If we cannot prostitute ourselves any more, what are we going to do, what are we going to become." 0.52 3. MV PROSTITUTES HOLDING BANNERS; MV MASKED PROSTITUTES; MV MASKED PROSTITUTES CHANTING " NO TO SARKOZY'S LAW"; MV MASKED PROSTITUTE (6 SHOTS) 1.34 4. (SOUNDBITE) (French) CLAIRE CARTHONNET SAYING "The government doesn't fight the traffic but the prostitutes. If it wanted to fight the traffic and the exploitation it should fight the proxenets, which is not the case today. For the last five years we have seen a massive arrival of foreign women while nothing is done to fight against the proxenets. They always take it against the girls, which are just the victims. What the government should do is give rights to the girls so they can leave the network and then have the police do their job." 2.00 5. MV MASKED PROSTITUTES HOLDING BANNER 2.11 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd November 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA98HXE9BX59XX8CWQS5O0S7XQ4
  • Story Text: Masked prostitutes have marched down the streets of
    Paris to protest against an anti-soliciting law that could
    seriously curtail their business.

    Hundreds of masked prostitutes marched on the French
    Senate on Tuesday (November 5, 2002) to protest against the the
    conservative government's plan to toughen the law on
    soliciting.

    "Prostitution stopped, prostitutes dead", read one banner
    held up in the crowd.

    At issue is a bill before parliament that would introduce a
    new crime of "passive soliciting", which prostitutes say could
    allow them to be jailed for six months for simply standing on
    the street.

    "We pay our taxes, the state gets money from us from our
    taxes and the fines we get, and now all of a sudden they want
    to take our jobs away from us, to prevent us from eating,
    lodging, living, surviving in a word. If we cannot prostitute
    ourselves any more, what are we going to do, what are we going
    to become?", one unidentified prostitute told Reuters
    Television.

    Prostitutes fear the legislation will force them to
    conduct their activities secretly and to turn tricks quickly,
    making them more vulnerable to violence and forcing them to
    accept clients who refuse to use condoms.

    Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's sweeping bill has
    come under fire from human rights groups as dangerous and
    repressive for giving police new powers to pursue suspects,
    cracking down on beggars and toughening sentences for teenage
    offenders.

    It would also allow authorities to confiscate the
    residence permits of foreign prostitutes. More than half of
    France's 15,000 to 18,000 prostitutes are foreigners, mostly
    from eastern Europe and France's former African colonies. The
    bill promises leniency for foreign street-walkers who denounce
    or testify against their pimps.

    "The government doesn't fight the traffic but the
    prostitutes. If it wanted to fight the traffic and the
    exploitation it should fight the proxenets, which is not the
    case today. For the last five years we have seen a massive
    arrival of foreign women while nothing is done to fight
    against the proxenets. They always take it against the girls,
    which are just the victims. What the government should do is
    give rights to the girls so they can leave the network and
    then have the police do their job", prostitute Claire
    Carthonnet said.

    Despite the fact that the bill has yet to be examined by
    parliament, Sarkozy's crusade is also being felt by the
    clients
    of street-walkers. Public prosecutors in the southwestern
    city of Bordeaux, which is run by a close ally of Chirac,
    created a legal precedent last month by convicting four
    clients of prostitutes on charges of "sexual exhibitionism"
    after they were caught having sex in their cars.

    Prostitution is legal in France, although current laws
    make overt soliciting punishable by fine.


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