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CONDOMS

Germany to make condoms a must for prostitutes’ clients

Germany will soon require all clients of prostitutes to use condoms, according to a draft law approved by the government Tuesday.

Published: 3 February 2016 08:50 CET
Germany to make condoms a must for prostitutes' clients
Photo: DPA

The new rule, which will enter in force in July 2017 if it secures parliamentary backing, is part of a package of measures aimed at offering greater protection to sex workers.

Among other measures agreed under the package are tougher rules governing the ownership of brothels.

Any prior convictions of proprietors would be examined to prevent human traffickers from running such establishments.

Prostitutes would be banned from living in the same rooms where they ply their trade.

They would also be required to meet regularly with “counsellors” from the health services.

Prostitution was made legal in Germany in 2002 and the legislation in place offers sex workers a right to public unemployment insurance as well as medical coverage.

However, the only official report released since found that there had been no real “improvement in the social protection of prostitutes”, with only one percent of sexworkers having a work contract.

 

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PROSTITUTION

Spain’s top court reinstates first sex workers’ union

Spanish sex workers have the right to form their own union, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, overturning an earlier court decision ordering the dissolution of Spain's first such labour organisation.

Published: 2 June 2021 16:34 CEST
Spain's top court reinstates first sex workers' union
Photo: Oscar del Pozo/AFP

Known as OTRAS (or “the Sex Workers’ Organisation”), the union was discretely set up in August 2018 but was closed three months later by order of the National Court following an appeal by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

But following an appeal, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of OTRAS, saying that its statutes, which had triggered the initial legal challenge, were “in line with the law” and that sex workers “have the fundamental right to freedom of association and the right to form a union”.

In its November 2018 ruling, the National Court had argued that allowing the union to exist amounted to “recognising the act of procurement as lawful”.

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Contacted by AFP, the union did not wish to comment.

When it was founded, OTRAS received the green light from the labour ministry and its statutes were publicly registered in the official gazette the day before the government went into a summer recess.

But three weeks later, the government — which portrays itself as “feminist and in favour of the abolition of prostitution” according to Sanchez’s Twitter feed at the time — started legal moves against it.

In Spain, prostitution is neither legal nor illegal but it is tolerated.

Although it is not recognised as employment, there is a large number of licensed brothels throughout the country.

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