Tribune. Five years. Five years have passed since the much debated law of April 13, 2016 aimed at strengthening the fight against the prostitution system and supporting prostitutes.
End of the repression against those first concerned, support towards a possible alternative, reversal of the criminal charge on the “client”: this law is a civilizational turning point, an unprecedented marker in the fight against violence and for equality, in phase with the great changes of society and the demand of the #MeToo movement to put an end to sexism and harassment.
Five years is certainly a very short time compared to millennia of patriarchy. But beyond the impatience to see it fully applied, there is also the urgency. In a health context that makes people in a situation of prostitution even more precarious and often acts as a trigger to encourage them to look for another path, grassroots associations are mobilizing, alongside survivors, to demand a phase 2 of the application. of the law. Massive and energetic.
Because where it is applied, this law works. All tell us: “The exit route has changed my life! “. In the departments that have become involved, a new sensitivity is emerging.
Impunity
The view of society has already changed, as has that of justice: lowering of the tolerance threshold for violence (today considered an aggravating circumstance before the courts), increased penalties for perpetrators of prostitutional feminicide (Nicoleta [à Rodilhan en 2018], Alaïs [à Montpellier, en 2020], recently murdered for having refused or demanded payment), increase in compensation for victims, better consideration of the prostitution of minors …
Those accused by abolitionism are not prostitutes but those who exploit them, pimps and prostitute clients, whether for financial profit or for alleged sexual urges.
For minors, the very recent creation of an age threshold of 15 years below which it is rape is a huge victory, and further proof that mentalities are changing!
If the evolution of mentalities is real, the application remains scandalously random on the territory. And the spirit of the law is led astray. Foreign prostitutes are threatened with deportation when they should receive basic assistance due to victims of violence.
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