Calenda Listing 1,434,603 (excerpts)
Law No. 2016-444 of April 13, 2016, aimed at strengthening the fight against the prostitution system, notably repealed the offense of soliciting clients under the former Article 225-10-1 of the Penal Code, while criminalizing, under a new Article 611-1, the use of prostitution—more commonly referred to as “client criminalization”; furthermore, the law provides for measures to assist individuals in leaving prostitution. This legislation has been met with mixed reactions from both legal scholars and practitioners, pitting advocates of strict abolitionism against those who argue for the freedom to engage in prostitution and highlight the health and safety risks faced by sex workers. The Constitutional Council and the European Court of Human Rights have ruled that the criminalization of the client is constitutional and consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights. Ten years later, this paper proposes to revisit the origins of this legislation and assess its impact in light of the diversity of European legislation on the subject, its consequences for the work of sex workers, and the prospects for the evolution of this regulatory framework.
