European rights court upholds French law penalising clients of sex workers

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday that a French law criminalising clients of sex workers does not violate the Convention on Human Rights.

The ruling followed a petition from 261 sex workers challenging the 2016 French law, which fines sex buyers up to €1,500, with penalties increasing significantly for repeat offenders.

Opponents of prostitution hailed the decision on the rarely enforced regulation as a major victory.

However, the applicants, backed by about 20 associations, argued that the law forced sex workers into hiding, increasing their vulnerability to abuse, violence, and sexually transmitted infections.

The petition was filed with the ECHR in Strasbourg in 2019, after their case had been unsuccessful in French courts.

Under Article 8 of the EU Convention, the plaintiffs argued that the French law penalising sex buyers endangered their physical and mental health.

Regarding the health and safety of sex workers, the judges in Strasbourg stated that they were "fully aware of the undeniable difficulties and risks to which they are exposed while exercising their activity."

This, was "already present and observed before the adoption of the law” in 2016, “the same negative effects having in the past been attributed to the introduction of the offence of solicitation into French law,” the court said.

According to rights group Amnesty International, Thursday's ECHR's ruling was a missed opportunity to better protect sex workers from abuse and violence.

“This ruling fails to recognise that criminalising sex work increases discrimination and stigmatisation and jeopardises the safety of sex workers, who are among the most marginalised groups in our societies,” said Anna Błuś, Amnesty International’s Women’s