KMT lawmakers plan to decriminalize sex trade

Cheng, a female lawmaker of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), said her plan has won endorsement from more than 10 colleagues of the same party, meaning the proposal of changing the rules has passed the threshold for becoming a bill that would be discussed on the parliament floor.

The proposal aims to delete Article 80 of the existing Social Order Maintenance Law, under which only prostitutes are punished but their clients are not.

Prostitutes face detention of three days or a fine of up to NT$30,000 if they are caught providing sex services.

They are also required to attend training courses to learn vocational skills for a period of six to 12 months if they were convicted three times in the same year.

Cheng said scrapping the rule will legalize the legitimate rights of sex workers who provide the service between two mutually consenting adults.

Since prostitution is illegal under the current rules, sex workers are often abused. When this happens, they dare not turn to police for help, she said.

Cheng said at least 5,000 sex workers are victimized by the backward rules each year, affecting the livelihood of a same number of families.

While there is no official estimate of the scale of Taiwan's sex industry, up to 800,000 people may be involved, with estimated annual revenue of at least NT$60 billion per year, according to figures presented by a researcher on the special business.

Cheng said legalizing the sex trade can have an additional advantage of generating around NT$18 billion for the national coffers each year.

All of the 18 people representing the women's groups, housewives, sex workers, and scholars, unanimously agreed that the sex trade should not be penalized, when they attended a series of four-day public hearings on the issue held by the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) last November, pointed out Cheng.

Cheng's plan has won support from leaders of women's organizations who said the existing regulations only drive the sex trade underground and cause exploitation of sex workers.

Wang Fang-ping, a leading advocate for the rights of sex workers, hailed what she called "a small step forward" in decriminalizing prostitution.

However, opponents claim that legalizing the domestic sex industry would result in increased sex abuse in the country. Some of them say more married men could be lured to extramarital affairs.

Wang Jin-pyng, speaker of the Legislative Yuan, said the rules can be revised only after a consensus on the issue is forged in the society.

When asked to comment on the current rules of punishing only the sex workers, but not the clients, Wang said "it's an issue of taking two to tango." He suggested holding more public hearings on the controversial issue.

How to better administer the sex trade should also be extensively discussed if the business is legalized, he added.

Former Vice President Annette Lu, a pioneering advocate of women's rights, said the issue should be taken seriously because of possible wide-ranging repercussions in society.

Supporters for the decriminalization movement should study the international trend and conduct public opinion polls to sound out the attitude of the majority of people, she suggested.

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2 Comments

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April 14, 2009    man_nature@

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Legislator Cheng was right in her suggestion that Rule #80 should be deleted and abolished.

Why do women work as sex workers? This kind of sex trade has existed since ancient times up to the present.

There are some reasons why women become prostitutes.

Category A
1-poverty
2-unskilled
3-difficult to find a decent job
4-white slavery

Category B
1-deceived and forced by her boyfriend.
2-abandoned by her husband without financial support.
3-skilled woman after being used by her boss.

A man’s nature desire will never change. Can the wife stop her own husband from seeking extra-marital sex? No.

It’s fair enough that we should not discriminate those poor female sex workers being rounded up and penalized and then thrown in jail.

I don't mean that I am supporting and encouraging women to become sex workers, just that they are also victims of the sex industry.

April 23, 2009    cowboy.wei@

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He is right, I think...The sex trade is a kind of job as well...isn't it? What's the big deal? If you don't like it, just get away from it, that's all.

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