The Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) yesterday rallied outside the Legislative Yuan, calling for the complete decriminalization of the sex industry, before meeting lawmakers from the two main political parties.
The rally comes just a month before a clause in the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) that penalizes sex workers expires.
Article 80 of the Social Order Maintenance Act, which penalizes sex workers, but not their clients, was declared “unconstitutional” by the Council of Grand Justices on Nov. 6, 2009, and it gave the government and the legislature a two-year period to amend the law.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
According to the interpretation, the council declared the clause unconstitutional because it believed that penalizing only sex workers violates of the spirit of equality embodied in the Constitution.
However, while the specific clause expires on Nov. 6, a revised law has yet to pass a legislative review.
Currently, there are three proposed amendments.
One proposed by the Executive Yuan would authorize local governments to create red light districts where prostitution is legal, but it would remain illegal outside such districts.
Another proposed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) seeks to penalize the client, but not the sex worker, while a third version proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) would decriminalize the sex trade for both the worker and the client if passed.
“The Executive Yuan’s version of the amendment only makes the situation worse because it would penalize both the sex worker and the client outside of a designated area, which is to be decided by the local government,” COSWAS executive director Chung Chun-chu (鍾君竺) said at the rally. “So when local governments refuse to create red light districts — which seems to be what would happen — it would be a de facto ban on prostitution.”
After a rally outside the Executive Yuan, COSWAS representatives petitioned lawmakers from both the DPP and the KMT.
“Right now, we don’t consider the Cabinet-proposed draft amendment our only option. We would first have to decide whether sex workers and clients should both be penalized, or if both should be exempt, before deciding whether to create red light districts,” KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said after the meeting.
On the other hand, DPP caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) panned the Executive Yuan’s proposal to create red light districts as “irresponsible,” adding that the DPP caucus believed that sex workers should be protected.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
A 23-year-old Taichung man vowed to drink more water after his heavy consumption of sugary tea landed him in hospital with a kidney infection and sepsis. The man, surnamed Lin (林), used to drink two cups of half-sugar oolong tea while working at a food stall, where he often had to wait a long time before urinating. Lin developed kidney stones and noticed blood in his urine, but ignored the issue after taking medication for three days. A month later, he went to the emergency room after experiencing a recurring fever and was diagnosed with a kidney infection that led to sepsis, landing
RSS