DISY DEPUTY Rikkos Mappourides opened up the debate about legalising prostitution, with his admission that he had paid for sex. We are not accustomed to such openness from deputies on a taboo issue like this. Mappourides made his admission in order to back his support for the legalisation of prostitution, during a round-table discussion on human trafficking.
Inevitably, his comments drew a strong reaction from the representative of a women’s support group who argued that the relationship between a customer and a prostitute was always unequal because the customer was in a position of power and could “take advantage or even rape these women”. These are legitimate concerns, but would it not be easier to offer some legal protection to these women if prostitution was legalised? Are they not at greater risk when they operate in a legal grey area, afraid to report aggressive or violent behaviour by customers for fear of finding themselves in trouble with the law?
There is a legal framework for prostitution in Cyprus, but it is not very clear. For instance, Nicosia has had a red light area for many decades and the sex workers were obliged to undergo regular medical checks. But police still charge women if they offer sex services in apartments – an officer visits the place using marked euro-notes and after completing the transaction arrests the woman. Do sex-workers have to be registered with the state to be able to practise the profession? Living off immoral earnings and forcing women into prostitution are, quite rightly, criminal offences but the law does not seem very clear as regards who can offer sex services.
Meanwhile, AKEL deputy Skevi Koukouma took an ultra hard-line on the matter, claiming that the debate should turn to the “criminalisation of the demand and purchase of services”, because “no woman is led into prostitution of her own choice.” The generalisation of a prostitute as a victim is not entirely correct, given that there are women who enter the profession voluntarily. However, it is also true that 65 per cent of human trafficking victims are sexually exploited and 96 per cent of these are women.
The problem is that prostitution has become integrally bound with human trafficking and even the allegedly innocent purchase of sex services that Mappourides referred to might not be so innocent. But criminalising the purchase of sex, which Koukouma suggested and would probably be backed by women support groups, does not seem to be the answer either as it would force the profession underground and place it under the complete control of criminal elements. In such a case there would be even less protection of women than there is at present.
