GERMANY'S DOUBTS ON LEGALIZED PROSTITUTION MAY REVERT LEGISLATION

 

Germany recently reassessed the validity of legalizing prostitution.  Although it has been legal to ply the streets for more than a decade in Germany, the authorities and the general population seem to want to revisit the decision that legalized the practice in the first place. 

The strongest objection to legalized prostitution comes from a feminist, who has equalled Germany to "a paradise for pimps".  Her appeal to overturn the legislation has met with approval and support, and more importantly signatures, from politicians to famous people, and even serious journalists. 

What underlies the effort, is the fact that legalizing prostitution has done nothing to protect sex workers, as was intended to, and has actually allowed sex slavery to flourish.  In fact, a large majority of prostitutes in Germany are sex slaves that have been brought from neighboring countries by force when they tried to escape the grinding poverty of their own country. 

The law, which was to provide the sex workers with health benefits, insurance and a measure of safety in working locales, has backfired when pimps from other countries have brought in sex slaves in droves, to take advantage of the social network the German legislation provided.  In fact Ms. Schwarzer, the feminist behind the petition for appeal, has cited correctly that the estimated number of sex workers in Germany has reached a staggering 700,000.   

What that number means, is that prostitutes in the legal brothels must be rotated constantly, as she puts it, in search 'for fresh meat', and the sex workers soon find themselves in the streets again, in the same or worse deplorable conditions they were in before legalization. 

The feminist's petition is now being tabled in the talks between Merkel's party and the Social Democrats.  But more importantly it has reopened the discourse on a subject that has not been well managed.  It is in fact, part of an even broader movement to stamp out prostitution altogether, a mission that was undertaken by German rights minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.  

Although erasing prostitution, like taking drugs out of society, is a societal impossibility at the moment, due to the equal impossibility of erasing the patrons of the trade, trying to curb sex slavery and to bring awareness of the conditions in which these women toil and suffer is a worthy cause. 

But those who believe that prostitution is a problem in terms of human rights and dignity, believe that with time, if the level of consciousness is raised, it might be diminished if not stopped.  It is part of a larger agenda of bringing society into the 21st century as more evolved, and more conscious of the ills of society. 

Partial Source : France 24/11.19.13