Paris:
French lawmakers were to debate a resolution today outlawing prostitution in a test of the country's long history of liberal attitudes toward sex.
The moves come with France gripped by coverage of a prostitution scandal involving former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has been linked with a pimping ring operating out of luxury hotels in the northern city of Lille.
The lower house National Assembly was to vote on a resolution drafted by a cross-party commission that if passed would then be followed by a bill, most likely next year.
The resolution says it aims to "demolish the idea that, under the pretext that prostitution is the 'oldest profession in the world', it is inevitable."
The resolution says criminalisation "is the best path to reducing prostitution in France, as countries that have regulated this activity saw it increase".
Guy Geoffroy of the ruling UMP party, a member of the commission, said passing the resolution would be "an important, symbolic and solemn step" in fighting prostitution.
Earlier this year, the commission recommended imposing sentences of up to six months in prison and a 3,000 euro (USD 4,000) fine on clients of prostitutes.
Prostitution is not illegal in France though several linked activities are, including soliciting, procuring and operating a brothel, while paying for sex with someone under the age of 18 is banned.
Sex workers' groups have denounced the proposal as an attack on their rights and have protested in front of the National Assembly against the resolution.
"Abolition and repression have never been the solution, all sociologists say so," a member of the Strass sex workers' group who gave her name only as Chloe said at a protest against the resolution last week.
She said "feminists" should "stop speaking for us" and urged lawmakers to instead grant sex workers full legal status.
An estimated 20,000 people work as prostitutes in France.
The moves come with France gripped by coverage of a prostitution scandal involving former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has been linked with a pimping ring operating out of luxury hotels in the northern city of Lille.
The lower house National Assembly was to vote on a resolution drafted by a cross-party commission that if passed would then be followed by a bill, most likely next year.
The resolution says it aims to "demolish the idea that, under the pretext that prostitution is the 'oldest profession in the world', it is inevitable."
The resolution says criminalisation "is the best path to reducing prostitution in France, as countries that have regulated this activity saw it increase".
Guy Geoffroy of the ruling UMP party, a member of the commission, said passing the resolution would be "an important, symbolic and solemn step" in fighting prostitution.
Earlier this year, the commission recommended imposing sentences of up to six months in prison and a 3,000 euro (USD 4,000) fine on clients of prostitutes.
Prostitution is not illegal in France though several linked activities are, including soliciting, procuring and operating a brothel, while paying for sex with someone under the age of 18 is banned.
Sex workers' groups have denounced the proposal as an attack on their rights and have protested in front of the National Assembly against the resolution.
"Abolition and repression have never been the solution, all sociologists say so," a member of the Strass sex workers' group who gave her name only as Chloe said at a protest against the resolution last week.
She said "feminists" should "stop speaking for us" and urged lawmakers to instead grant sex workers full legal status.
An estimated 20,000 people work as prostitutes in France.
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