Legalising prostitution

[claidheamhmor]

This article on the question of legalising prostitution in South Africa was interesting, especially with reference to the moral views of the head of the National Prosecuting Authority possibly overriding rational decisions.

Sex workers slam Mpshe
20/05/2009 22:23 - (SA)

Cape Town - The personal moral views of people such as prosecutions boss Mokotedi Mpshe should play no role in deciding whether sex work is legalised, NGO Sweat said on Wednesday.

It was reacting to Mpshe's suggestion this week that legalising the industry would be bad for South Africa's morals.

He also said he feared it would become "a career".

Sweat (Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force) said it was dismayed by Mpshe's statement.

His view was short sighted, and failed to take note of either the realities on the ground or the respect for human rights enshrined in the Constitution.

"The criminalisation of sex work does not stop it from being a career," Sweat director Eric Harper said in a statement.

"It only makes it a career filled with insecurity, abuse and harassment."

Existing laws on sex work

Vivienne Lalu, Sweat's advocacy programme co-ordinator, said one would have expected Mpshe, who is acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority, to comment on the difficulties prosecutors had in enforcing existing laws on sex work and to make sound legal recommendations.

"Instead his comments were limited to his personal moral views on the matter," she said.

She told Sapa that while Sweat respected people's right to hold a Christian moral view -- which was essentially what Mpshe had been expressing -- South Africa was a secular state, and it was inappropriate that those views should be enshrined in the country's laws.

"That gets imposed on the whole of society," she said.

Services widely available

She also said the services of sex workers were in any case already widely available throughout the country, advertised in daily newspapers, magazines and on the internet.

"To some extent there is a de facto decriminalisation situation already because the criminal law hardly ever gets used," she said.

In its statement, Sweat quoted an anonymous Cape Town female sex worker as commenting on Mpshe's remarks by saying she gave men pleasure and they gave her money to feed her children and put them through school.

"The prosecutor says my job is immoral, but is it not immoral to stop me feeding and educating my children?" she asked.

ACDP applauds Mpshe

Sweat said it would be making a detailed submission to the SA Law Reform Commission on its recently released discussion paper on adult prostitution, and encouraged sex workers to do the same.

The African Christian Democratic Party on Wednesday welcomed what it said was Mpshe's "serious note of caution" on attempts to decriminalise sex work.

"We applaud him for bringing attention to the fact that such an act will affect the morals of the nation," said ACDP MP Cheryllyn Dudley.

"Would you want your husband, wife, daughter or son, mother or father involved in prostitution?" she asked.

"Prostitution is a wrecker of relationships, families and communities and must not be allowed to become a career choice."

- SAPA

Source: News24

Now, from my point of view, I would welcome the legalisation of sex work. It would make things safer for sex workers (due to regulations, medical tests, etc.), reduce the effect of organised crime in the industry (pimps), and it would widen the tax base to include people who are not currently paying taxes. I think adults should have the right to sell their services, sexual or otherwise, if that's what they want.

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What do you think?