The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) unanimously ruled that the French anti-prostitution law does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

The ruling followed a petition from 261 prostituted women of various nationalities, who filed a complaint with the ECHR in 2019, pointing out that “the law seriously endangered their physical and mental integrity and health and radically infringed on the right to respect for private life, personal autonomy and sexual freedom”.

The Court judged the applicant’s complaint based on Article 8 of the Convention, which refers to the right to respect everyone’s private and family life, and stated that they “were fully aware of the undeniable difficulties and risks to which prostituted people are exposed while exercising their activity”.

But they added that these were “already present and observed before the adoption of the law” in 2016.

Taking all that into account, the ECHR held that “the French authorities had not overstepped their discretion, and had struck a fair balance between the competing interests involved”.

No general consensus

Although the Strasbourg judges ruled that the French legislation did not violate Article 8, they also underlined that “problems linked to prostitution raised very sensitive moral and ethical questions, giving rise to different, often conflicting, views”,

“There was still no general consensus among the member States of the Council of Europe, or even within the various international organisations examining the issue, on how best to approach prostitution”, added the ECHR.

Furthermore, “recourse to the general criminalisation of the purchase of sexual acts as a means of combating human trafficking was currently the subject of heated debate, giving rise to wide differences of opinion at both European and international level, without a clear position emerging”.

That is why the ECHR called on the French authorities “to constantly review their approach and adapt it where necessary in order to take account of social developments and international standards”.

Judgment M.A. and Others v. France - Criminalisation of the purchase of sexual acts is not a violation of the Conventionhttps://t.co/6t1olqGCTt#ECHR #CEDH #ECHRpress pic.twitter.com/GZOEfjghbM

— ECHR CEDH (@ECHR_CEDH) July 25, 2024

The prostitution debate in Europe

The debate over prostitution has raged on for decades in Europe.

In 2016, the French National Assembly passed a law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services, but not the offer, following the so called Nordic model that Sweden implemented for the fist tie in Europe in 1999, followed by Norway and Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, in 2022, Belgium became the only country in Europe to decriminalise sex work.

Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Austria all have some form of legalised prostitution, while in Spain and Italy, there has been a heated political debate on the issue in the last years.