The Queensland Parliament passed Thursday the Criminal Code (Decriminalising Sex Work) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 to decriminalise intercourse work. The brand new regulation additionally consists of new offences in opposition to youngster prostitution and coercion to carry out intercourse work. The Queensland Lawyer-Common Yvette D’Ath said that “intercourse staff shouldn’t have to decide on between working legally with security dangers and working safely with authorized dangers – they may now be capable of function each safely and legally.”
The regulation was first launched on February 15, following the report of the intercourse work laws published by the Queensland Legislation Reform Fee (QLRC) in March 2023. The QLRC evaluate recognized vital limitations for intercourse staff within the earlier laws. Chapter 22A (Prostitution) of the Felony Code 1899 solely allowed intercourse work to be carried out in licensed brothels or by unbiased, personal intercourse staff. Intercourse staff who labored in a bunch or in a public setting like soliciting on the road had been liable to being charged with a most penalty of as much as 7 years imprisonment. Unlawful intercourse staff had been unable to report crimes dedicated in opposition to them to the police.
The brand new laws permits for solicitation, promoting, and dealing in teams. This allows intercourse staff to function with out concern of prosecution and for points or crimes dedicated in opposition to them to be reported to police. Moreover, the brand new regulation up to date the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 to incorporate safety for intercourse staff, guaranteeing that intercourse staff couldn’t be discriminated in opposition to by inns and lodging for believing that friends can be utilizing a room for intercourse work.
Queensland non-profit advocacy group, Respect Inc., welcomed the laws, stating that, “decriminalisation, together with anti-discrimination protections, would ship a message that discrimination would now not be tolerated.”
Other than decriminalising intercourse work, there at the moment are offences to protect youngsters from sexual exploitation and particularly to stop youngsters from being coerced to carry out intercourse work. A brand new part 217A within the Criminal Code 1899 will make it an offence to acquire industrial sexual providers from an individual who just isn’t an grownup.
Intercourse work has been decriminalised in different states of Australia, together with New South Wales in 1995, Victoria in 2022, and the Northern Territory in 2019.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
