Prostitute Protection Act

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Basic data
Title: Law regulating the prostitution industry and protecting people working in prostitution
Short title: Prostitute Protection Act
Abbreviation: ProstSchG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Public law
References : 402-42
Issued on: October 21, 2016
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2372 )
Entry into force on: July 1, 2017
Last change by: Art. 182 VO from 19 June 2020
( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1328, 1349 )
Effective date of the
last change:
June 27, 2020
(Art. 361 of June 19, 2020)
Weblink: Text of the law
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The Prostitute Protection Act ( ProstSchG ) was enacted on October 21, 2016 and came into force on July 1, 2017. Core elements are the introduction of a license requirement for all prostitution businesses and a registration certificate for prostitutes (colloquially whore pass or whore ID ). The aim is to better protect prostitutes and combat crime. Interest groups criticize the law disadvantaging and endangering prostitutes and filed a constitutional complaint in June 2017 .

Content

Regulations for prostitutes

By law, people who are or want to pursue prostitution in Germany are obliged from July 1, 2017 to register their activity with the competent authority ( Section 3 ProstSchG).

There will be an information and clarification meeting in which the person registering should be informed about social legislation in Germany, about advisory services and the content of the new law ( Sections 7 and 8 ProstSchG). After completing a mandatory health consultation ( § 10 ProstSchG), a registration certificate - colloquially and called "whore ID" or "whore pass" by some interest groups - is issued, which is provided with a photo and must always be carried when working in prostitution ( Sections 5 and 6 ProstSchG). The registration certificate is valid for two years; for prostitutes under the age of 21, it only applies for one year ( Section 5 (4) ProstSchG). When the registration certificate is renewed, proof must be provided that the health consultation took place annually - every six months for prostitutes under the age of 21 (Section 5 (5) sentences 2 and 3 ProstSchG).

Upon request, the office can issue a supplementary alias certificate in which the real name is replaced by a pseudonym in order to protect the person's identity ( Section 5 (6) ProstSchG).

The information about the confirmation of registration is automatically transmitted in electronic form to the responsible tax authorities ( Section 34 (8) ProstSchG).

The law provides that the authority responsible for counseling will initiate "the measures necessary to protect the person" if there are indications that a person does not pursue prostitution of his own free will or should be forced to do so ( Section 9 ProstSchG ).

Prostitution industry

Under the prostitution trade, the legislature defines the operation of prostitution facilities, the provision of prostitution vehicles , the organization and implementation of prostitution events and the procurement of prostitution ( Section 2 (3) ProstSchG). All these commercial activities will in future require a permit due to the newly passed law, whereby this permit, similar to catering concessions , must be applied for from the competent authority by submitting an operating concept ( Section 12 ProstSchG).

Permits are only granted if the authority affirms the ability to obtain a permit ( Section 14 ProstSchG) and the respective applicant appears officially reliable ( Section 15 ProstSchG), which is checked by obtaining information from the Federal Central Register ( certificate of good conduct ) and obtaining police information. Anyone who has been legally convicted within the last 5 years for certain crimes or for offenses against sexual self-determination, bodily harm, forced prostitution , extortion, money laundering, fraud or for offenses against the Residence Act is not considered reliable and accordingly cannot operate a prostitution business in Germany. Even people who belong to unimpeachable forbidden associations or who have belonged in the last 10 years are usually denied reliability.

The operator of a prostitution business has to fulfill the safety and health protection of the employed prostitutes, the examination of the admissibility of their employment and further information, control and recording obligations ( §§ 24 to 28 ProstSchG).

Prohibitions, sanctions

The law introduced compulsory condoms ( Section 32 (1) ProstSchG). Advertising for certain sexual services, such as intercourse without a condom or with pregnant women, is prohibited in the cases mentioned in Section 32 (3) ProstSchG.

Violations of the regulations can be punished with fines of up to 10,000 euros; if customers violate the condom obligation, fines of up to 50,000 euros are possible ( Section 33 ProstSchG).

Background and introduction

With the Prostitution Act passed in 2001 under the government of Gerhard Schröder, the immorality of prostitution was abolished on January 1, 2002 , whereby prostitutes were able to conclude a legally effective prostitution contract with their clients for the first time and were given access to social security . Critics described this law as too liberal, making Germany the “brothel of Europe”, while defenders saw the inadequacies primarily in the implementation. They also took the view that effective protection for prostitutes was only possible if this work was legalized.

In 2013, the SPD , CDU and CSU decided in their coalition agreement to “ better protect women from human trafficking and forced prostitution ” on the one hand and “punish perpetrators more consistently” through regulation and introduction of “regulatory control options”. In the summer of 2014, the coalition partners agreed on the introduction of mandatory registration and the ban on so-called flat-rate brothels and group sex . The requirement of the Union to reintroduce compulsory medical examinations for prostitutes , as well as the requirement for a minimum age of 21 years, was not included in the law. After they became known, these demands were criticized as unsuitable in an open letter by women's and social organizations (including the German Women's Council , the German Association of Women Lawyers , Diakonie and German Aids Aid ) .

In the explanatory memorandum for the draft law, which the Federal Government presented to the Bundestag in May 2016, it was explained that prostitution is "an economic sector in which substantial sales are achieved and which [...] follows the inherent laws of the market economy". However, prostitution is also "an area in which fundamental rights such as sexual self-determination, personal freedom, health and personal rights of those involved are in fact particularly endangered". In particular, there is a lack of “binding minimum requirements for the protection of the safety and health of those working there” and legal bases for monitoring the operators of prostitution businesses. A lack of official supervisory instruments favored criminal structures. At the same time, “it must be taken into account that prostitution is not infrequently carried out by people who are in a particularly vulnerable or stressful situation and who are therefore unable to stand up for their rights in a self-determined manner. Many [prostitutes] also fear being disadvantaged in their social environment if their work [...] becomes known ”. These peculiarities should be taken into account when regulating the prostitution industry. The aim of the Prostitution Protection Act is to "better protect prostitutes and to strengthen their right to self-determination, [...] to create the basis for guaranteeing acceptable working conditions and to protect health [...]" and to "human trafficking, violence against prostitutes and the exploitation of prostitutes and pimping fight".

While countries welcomed the introduction of a prostitution permit requirement, a number of countries opposed the law. In addition to the notification requirement (see section #Kritik ), the costs incurred by the federal states were criticized, which the federal government put at 17 million euros. The planned regulation of brothels, however, met with broad approval.

The draft law was tightened slightly by the family committee of the Bundestag at the request of the coalition factions (advertising ban for sex with pregnant women) and passed by parliament on July 7, 2016 with the votes of the grand coalition .

Implementation and impact

The implementation of the law is in the hands of the federal states and municipalities. Many states - including Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Hamburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony - were unable to create the necessary conditions in time for July 1, 2017, in particular to hire the necessary staff. In Munich, according to the city, three doctors, a social worker and two administrative staff had to be recruited to the health department. In addition, there were “eight permanent positions plus management for registration and nine positions for checking brothels”, which alone cost 1.5 million euros.

Some federal states charge a fee for registration and mandatory health advice. Bavaria charges a fee of 35 euros each for registration and advice, while Saarland charges a fee of 35 euros for registration. In Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, registration and health advice are free of charge.

According to their own statements, the Stuttgart police received three reports of violating the condom requirement in the first year of the law's validity. According to the municipal regulatory office, four-digit fines can be expected.

criticism

The Berlin prostitute counseling center and advocacy group Hydra criticized shortly before the introduction of the law that the obligation to register had "created a terrible fear" because it was unclear what was happening with the data and who had access to it. In particular, there are fears that the correspondence between the authority and the prostitute will lead to relatives learning about their activities. This danger is particularly great for those migrant women who can only give a foreign address. Similar reservations exist about the “whore pass”. If the anonymous and covert practice of prostitution is no longer legally possible, illegality threatens. The professional association for erotic and sexual services also made this criticism .

The importance of anonymity for prostitutes was also underlined by Julia Buntenbach-Henke , the head of the prostitution specialist counseling center at Diakoniewerk Hamburg : "[T] he result of an outing is for many [...] social isolation". On Deutschlandfunk she welcomed the intention of the law to achieve “more self-determination for women in prostitution”, but criticized the implementation. Women who did not register would no longer report incidents of violence to the police, as they feared being punished for illegal prostitution. Buntenbach-Henke described the assumption that a woman would report a dependency relationship to the authorities when registering - this was one of the arguments used by Lower Saxony's Minister of Social Affairs and Women's Affairs, Cornelia Rundt (SPD) in 2015, to describe Buntenbach-Henke as "pure utopia" . This assessment was also supported by the Bundestag member Cornelia Möhring ( Die Linke ), who criticized after the passage of the law by the Bundestag that a “one-time brief contact with the authorities” is hardly enough to create a relationship of trust. On the other hand, qualified advice is necessary.

The CDU MP Sylvia Pantel countered the critics of an obligation to register as early as September 2014, saying that this did not serve to stigmatize, but was "something that is quite normal for other employees". Prostitution cannot be recognized as a “normal service offer” if there is no registration and control. The law should help those women who work dependent and have so far been defenseless. In a similar way, Family Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) expressed herself after the law was passed: The obligation to register is not a nuisance for self-determined sex workers, but necessary to protect women who are lured to Germany and disappear into brothels.

The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister for Health and Emancipation Barbara Steffens ( Greens ) already cited arguments against this view in 2015 in a statement on the draft law submitted at the time. On the one hand, the draft "does not make a clear enough distinction between the fight against human trafficking ( criminal offense ) and the regulation of prostitution"; on the other hand, experiences from Vienna , where there was already a reporting obligation, show that those victims of human trafficking who are properly registered would have to assume that "their exploitation is legal and legitimized by the state".

In addition, Steffens, like her colleague, the Bremen Senator for Social Affairs, Anja Stahlmann (Greens), criticized the state using the law to label women and men as prostitutes. According to Steffens, the planned law contains an “almost limitless definition of prostitution”; this also included people who only occasionally rendered sexual services. Even the Tantra Massage federation criticized in a statement that the definition of "prostitution" was too broad: "Any kind of commercial air contact in the genital area as unskilled and often involuntary prostitution interpreted, fits more into the spirit of the 50s and 60s [... ]. "Tantra masseurs would now be confronted with legal uncertainty and may only be able to work with a registration certificate.

The Frankfurt association Doña Carmen , together with 15 brothel operators and some suitors (a total of 26 people) submitted a constitutional complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court against the Prostitute Protection Act in June 2017 . The lawsuit drawn up by the Berlin constitutional lawyer Meinhard Starostik is directed against the obligation to register and provide advice, which is contrary to the constitution. All prostitutes would be put under general suspicion. In addition, according to Starostik, the condom requirement is an “inadmissible interference with the intimate area of ​​personality ” and the duty of inspection for operators of brothels is disproportionate. Such a comprehensive regulation, as provided for in the Prostitute Protection Act, exists for “no other occupation” and, given the fact that there were “200,000 people in this branch” in 2015, “nationwide only 72 convictions because of pimping, human trafficking and exploitation of prostitutes ", not necessary. The Federal Constitutional Court refused to accept the complaint in 2018 because it was insufficiently justified. As the Frankfurter Rundschau announced in February 2019, Doña Carmen has filed a lawsuit against the Prostitute Protection Act at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

literature

  • Manfred Büttner: Prostitute Protection Act: short comment. Richard Boorberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-415-05996-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Yannic Hannebohn: prostitutes Protection Act - sex workers under pressure. In: deutschlandfunk.de. June 30, 2017, accessed June 13, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b Christian Rath: Sex workers fight back . In: taz . June 22, 2017, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 2 ( taz.de [accessed September 24, 2018]).
  3. a b c d Andrea Dernbach: Why prostitutes reject a law that is supposed to protect them. In: tagesspiegel.de . July 1, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2017 .
  4. a b Simone Schmollack: action against prostitutes Protection Act: whores pass and operating concept. In: taz.de. June 21, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017 .
  5. ^ Andrea Dernbach: Women's associations criticize "control madness". In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 22, 2015, accessed November 12, 2017 .
  6. ^ A b c Andrea Dernbach: NRW sharply criticizes the Prostitution Act. In: Der Tagesspiegel. August 28, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  7. a b c d Andrea Dernbach: Women's and social associations warn of bans. In: Der Tagesspiegel. January 28, 2015, accessed November 12, 2017 .
  8. a b c d Draft law to regulate the prostitution trade and to protect people working in prostitution . In: Bundestag printed matter . No. 18/8556 , May 25, 2016 ( dipbt.bundestag.de [PDF; 911 kB ; accessed on November 23, 2018]).
  9. ^ A b c Andrea Dernbach: Land criticism of the new prostitution law. In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 22, 2015, accessed November 12, 2017 .
  10. a b c Prostitutes have to register. In: bundestag.de. German Bundestag, 2016, accessed on November 13, 2017 .
  11. Prostitution: Prostitute Protection Act costs the Free State a few million euros. In: focus.de. June 24, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2017 .
  12. Implementation of the ProstSchG in Bavaria. In: prostituiertenschutzgesetz.info. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  13. Implementation of the ProstSchG in Saarland. In: prostituiertenschutzgesetz.info. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  14. Implementation of the ProstSchG in Baden-Württemberg. In: prostituiertenschutzgesetz.info. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  15. Implementation of the ProstSchG in Hamburg. In: prostituiertenschutzgesetz.info. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  16. Implementation of the ProstSchG in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In: prostituiertenschutzgesetz.info. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  17. Implementation of the ProstSchG in NRW. In: prostituiertenschutzgesetz.info. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  18. Implementation of the ProstSchG in Schleswig-Holstein. In: prostituiertenschutzgesetz.info. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  19. Mathias Bury: Sex trade - clients violate duties. In: gea.de. June 19, 2018, accessed on April 29, 2019 (registration required).
  20. Andrea Dernbach: Union insists on health tests for prostitutes. In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 24, 2014, accessed November 12, 2017 .
  21. ^ Statement of the professional association for tantric massage on the law
  22. Stefanie Meinecke: New Prostitute Protection Act Between Claims and Reality , Deutschlandfunk, July 1, 2017
  23. Doña Carmen: Success! - Constitutional complaint against Prostitute Protection Act filed in Karlsruhe! In: www.donacarmen.de. June 22, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2017 .
  24. Oliver Teutsch: Prostitution Act: Prostitutes complain in Karlsruhe. In: fr.de. June 2, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2018 .
  25. ^ Christian Rath: BVerfG on Prostitute Protection Act - "Abstract, fictional and incomplete". In: taz.de . August 15, 2018, accessed July 1, 2020.
  26. Stefan Behr: Doña Carmen goes to Strasbourg. In: fr.de . February 7, 2019, accessed November 28, 2019.