Länderberichte TAIWAN:

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters

in Taipeh, Taiwan



www.coswas.org

English by Google

Blog:
http://streetsurvivor.blogspot.com







Sex workers take to the streets 2004

Activities highlighting the lives of sex trade workers will add to the ongoing debate about whether to decriminalize the industry

By Max Woodworth
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Feb 06, 2004, Page 17


The oldest profession in the world will take center stage this weekend in Taipei with the 4th International Sex Workers Culture Festival highlighting the plight of workers in the profession and the many associated social, political, health and economic issues related to prostitution.

Organized by the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS), events set to take place over the next four days have been given the label of a festival, though the series of seminars, workshops and tomorrow's march have serious undertones that are hard to equate with the carefree spirit of a carnival.

The sex industry has been the source of heated debate since the Ministry of the Interior on Jan. 6 announced a reform plan that reportedly would decriminalize most aspects of the industry and even raised the possibility of establishing red-light districts. This Wednesday, however, the director of the ministry's Department of Social Affairs Chiu Ju-na responded at a protest action by the Garden of Hope Foundation by saying the report in the China Times had overstated the reform proposal and that the ministry was currently only considering decriminalizing sex workers.

Sex workers and their supporters are ready to whoop it up this weekend for the International Sex Workers Culture Festival.

If this first-step reform ultimately is approved, it would end one of the only issues on which COSWAS and the Garden of Hope Foundation find common ground, namely that the current practice of fining and jailing prostitutes, but not their customers, is wholly unjust. Secretary of COSWAS Chung Chun-chu said the current system lends itself to abuse from police, customers and prostitutes alike.

"Police officers will pay prostitutes to report on other prostitutes to reach their arrest quotas. Or the cops will simply give a man money and then follow him to the location or show up at an appointed time," Chung said.

Issues such as these will get a full airing during two open debates at Taipei City Council set to take place today at 1pm and Monday at the same time. To help back the case of local sex workers, COSWAS has invited representatives of sex-worker unions from England, Cambodia and Thailand, as well as human rights and women's rights activists from the US, Singapore and Hong Kong to discuss the varied experiences of sex workers in achieving the decriminalization of their trade.

Two workshops set to take place tomorrow and Sunday at Taipei Artist Village (admission for women only) have been designed to perform and teach erotic dancing techniques. "These are very popular events because most Taiwanese women perceive prostitutes as having a very close and special relationship with their bodies. They're very curious about this," Chung said.

The main public events, though, will be tomorrow's parade, which will see participation from the international guests, who in years past have put on some fairly flamboyant and memorable street shows for the festival, and the party on Sunday at Guisui Theater Park.

Being an election year, this year's event has a political tint as the parade route starts at the Zhongxiao-Fuxing Sogo Department Store and leads to the presidential campaign headquarters of the DPP and the KMT/PFP.

"We want the candidates to sign a petition that commits them to a timetable for adopting the reform that they proposed," Chung said.

When Chiu met the Garden of Hope protesters, who would rather see the sex trade in Taiwan eradicated than decriminalized, outside the Ministry of the Interior on Wednesday, she said the government would allow for greater public debate of the issue before her department pressed ahead with the reform plan, which casts some doubt over the likelihood of DPP representatives meeting the paraders with any intention of signing a petition.

Likewise, the KMT/PFP camp will be unlikely to stick its neck out on this loaded issue. Nevertheless, the parade will be an opportunity for participants to put on a show and no doubt get plenty of attention from the media and public. After all, there's nothing the TV news likes better than a story with a sex theme.

But the issues behind the bared breasts -- if, indeed there are any tomorrow -- are large and the attempts on the part of the festival to stimulate discussion are noteworthy when considering the facts about prostitution in Taiwan.

According to the National Police Administration, more than NT$22 million in fines ranging from NT$3,000 to NT$30,000 were collected from prostitutes last year and almost NT$250 million in fines have been levied over the past decade. On top of the fines, about 37,000 days, more than 100 years, of jail time have been served over the past decade by prostitutes caught on the job.

A conservative estimate that COSWAS provided and was attributed to the police has 50,000 sex workers active in Taiwan. A loose calculation of their earnings at NT$2,000 per day would put the total income of the sex industry at NT$36.5 billion per year, much of it currently making its way into the pockets of pimps, gangsters and middlemen.

"We're hoping that by providing cultural activities, like parties, exhibitions and workshops, we'll attract attention to the issues from people who would otherwise shun the topic of prostitutes," Chung said. "We know from experience that most people don't want prostitution totally banned, nor completely legalized. This event aims to help the public try to find the middle ground."





Original mit Bildern:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar ... 2003097716





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[Marc of Frankfurt]

The De-criminalization of Sex Work and Taiwan's Presidential Election

For those who sympathize with the Sex Worker's Rights Movement:

On March 22, Taiwan is going to hold its presidential election to determine its future in the following four years. COSWAS hopes to use this critical occasion to bring to social attention how sex work has suffered from crackdown and marginalization in Taiwan society. To achieve this goal, we have organized a series of activities since September 2007, such as urging the two presidential candidates to sign an agreement to show their commitment to de-criminalize sex work, or organizing a demonstration on March 8 Women's Day to hold open conversations with the candidates.

The possibility of this demonstration was also the result of COSWAS's years-long efforts in the outreach work. We succeeded in recruiting roughly 10 sex workers (including 7 streetwalkers and 3 ex-licensed prostitutes) to participate in this event. These sex workers took turns to make their demands to be heard in the public: some stood up to confront the media in front of the candidates' campaign centers, while others, though remained anxious in front of the media, fixed themselves on the propaganda cars to speak up.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful Ma Ying-jeou (°¨­^¤E) remained obscure to our demands. As what he has done during the past confrontations with COSWAS, Ma refused to either state his position in the issue of de-criminalizing sex work or to offer his open support to the movement. Ma is a politician who shows a great understanding of the sex industry and is quite subtle at dealing with controversial issues. For people who commit themselves to promote the rights of sex workers, he would surely be a president hard to bargain with once he gets elected.

On the other hand, Frank Hsieh (Áªø§Ê), who runs the presidential election for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, openly promised to revise the present stipulation to legalize sex work. He is the first presidential candidate from either party who, under COSWAS's intense efforts for ten years, openly stated his support to the movement. In fearing that the ruling party would retract their promise -which is not an uncommon gesture for Taiwan's politicians- to enforce their abolition policies again, and also with Hsieh serving as the current leader of the ruling party, we further demanded him to show his determination by urging the government to include the de-criminalization of sex work as part of the policy statement.





Here is the news report from Taipei Times.

*****************************
Sex workers call for election vows
(Taipei Times)

By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Mar 09, 2008, Page 2

¤å¦r¤è¶ô:

Protesters rally outside Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's campaign headquarters in Taipei yesterday to demand that Ma promise to legalize prostitution if elected. PHOTO: PATRICK LIN, AFP



A group of 300 sex workers and their supporters took to the streets yesterday to call on the presidential candidates to make prostitution legal, prompting Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (Áªø§Ê) to commit himself to decriminalizing prostitution if elected.
The criminalization of prostitution violates the rights of sex workers to work in safe conditions, the protesters said, urging Hsieh and his rival, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful Ma Ying-jeou (°¨­^¤E), to abolish Article 80 of the Social Order and Maintenance Act (ªÀ·|¯´§ÇºûÅ@ªk), which stipulates that selling sexual services is illegal, but that paying for such services is not.

In response, Hsieh signed an agreement to decriminalize prostitution within two years if elected. The group welcomed Hsieh's gesture and said it hoped it was not just an election ploy to garner votes.

Ma's campaign team declined to make any commitments, saying only that Ma would take their plea into consideration.
Ma's camp said there was no public consensus on whether prostitution should be legal, adding that Ma would hold public hearings on the matter if elected.
The Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS), which organized the demonstration, said they were not completely satisfied with the responses of either camp, but added that time would tell if the winning candidate was sincere.

"It seems that Ma is shifting responsibility for solving this issue onto the public," COSWAS member Chung Chun-chu (Áé§gªÇ) said, urging the KMT candidate to take a clear stance before the election.

In September 1997, President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó), who was then mayor of Taipei, illegalized brothels, which had been legal in the city, in an effort to curb the growing sex trade.
COSWAS said that decision has devastated the lives of many sex workers, who had no other way to make a living. Forced to continue working illegally, the workers also lost all legal options for recourse if they were hurt or cheated by customers, COSWAS said.
Before the clampdown, prostitutes could charge customers between NT$800 and NT$1,000 per 15 minutes and could demand their customers wear condoms or else refuse to have sex with them. Following the crackdown, working conditions have deteriorated drastically, COSWAS said, with most prostitution rings controlled [now after being illegalized] by the mafia.

In 1999, when Ma became mayor of Taipei, he granted a two-year grace period for remaining brothels to close shop.

taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/03/09/2003404701





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[nina777]

26.6.2009

Taiwan legalisiert Prostitiution

Religiöse Gruppen sprachen sich gegen die Entscheidung aus.

Taiwans Kabinett gab dem öffentlichen Druck von Prostituierten und mit ihnen verbundenen NGOs nach und versprach, die Prostitution zu legalisieren. Damit revidieren sie die das vor 11 Jahren ausgesprochene Gesetz des Verbotes von Prostitution.

Innerhalb von sechs Monaten will das Kabinett neue Vorschriften erlassen, die auch Orte für erlaubte Prostitution beinhalten. Danach soll die Arbeit im Rotlichtbereich nicht mehr strafbar sein. Bisher wurde nur die Dienste anbietende Person bestraft, der Kunde ging straffrei aus. Dies sei eine Ungleichbehandlung und nicht gerecht, so der Sprecher des Regierungsinformationsbüros, Su Jun-pin.

Religiöse Gruppen sprachen sich gegen die Entscheidung aus.

http://www.china-observer.de/090626-111 ... ution.html

24.6.2009

Taiwan OKs prostitution after pressure by sex workers

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan began a process of legalising prostitution Wednesday making the island the latest place in the world to decriminalise the world's oldest profession.

In six months, authorities will stop punishing Taiwan sex workers after prostitutes successfully campaigned to be given the same protection as their clients, a government spokesman said.

"Now the client gets off free, but the prostitute gets punished, and that's not fair," spokesman Su Jun-pin said.

Taiwan's cabinet will issue regulations within six months, when new regulations take effect, covering locations in Taiwan approved for prostitution.

"It's like fishing," Su said. "The activity may be legal, but in some places you can't do it."

Taiwan outlawed prostitution 11 years ago, but older sections of the capital Taipei still teem with underground sex workers in bars and night clubs on the upper floors of high-rise buildings.

The Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters, a Taipei-based advocacy group, estimates that 600,000 people are involved in sex-related jobs.

"It's something the public has wanted for 12 years," said Collective CEO Chung Chun-tsu. "More and more people are agreeing with this consensus."

Local religious groups, however, have opposed the move.

Taiwan is the latest place to legalise prostitution.

New Zealand allowed brothels to operate freely in 2003, when parliament narrowly voted to overturn 100-year-old sex laws. A court in Bangladesh decriminalised the trade in 2000, but for women only.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/odd/5678382

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Taiwan legalizes world's oldest profession

Score one for sex workers: Activists in Taiwan emerged victorious Wednesday after waging a long battle to legalize prostitution in their country.

Six months from now, the nation's 600,000 working girls (and guys) will be free to ply their trade without fear of incarceration. "Now the client gets off free, but the prostitute gets punished, and that's not fair," sex worker spokesman Su Jun-pin told Reuters.

Under the new regulations, it will be up to local governments to decide whether to relegate prostitution to specific districts or decriminalize it throughout the entire region.

What is especially remarkable about this decision is that it results from old-fashioned grass-roots organizing from groups such as Taipei's Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters.

This means a massive victory not only for prostitutes in Taiwan but also for activists around the world working for decriminalization. "This is telling about the global movement," says Tara Sawyer, a Sex Workers Outreach Project board member www.swopUSA.org . She compares the fight for decriminalization to the civil rights movement, saying that the Taiwan decision underscores the urgent need for the U.S. government "to listen to the people doing the work. We're not doing that yet."

Of course, it makes sense that groups working for decriminalization in this country have had less success than their Asian counterparts: In Taiwan, prostitution has only been prohibited for the past 11 years.

― Judy Berman
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/200 ... index.html





.

[Zwerg]

@Marc
Danke für die gute Nachricht!

Christian

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Taiwan legalizes world's oldest profession

http://sexworkeurope.org/icrse/index.ph ... n-decrim09

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Urteil des Verfassungsgerichts:
Klassenjustiz gegen Sexworker soll abgeschafft werden

An equitable future for sex workers


By Chung Chun-chu and Chang Jung-che
Sunday, Nov 15, 2009, Page 8

‘The ministry once promised to listen to sex workers ... but it has not invited a single sex worker to take part in the policy formulation process.’

Constitutional Interpretation No. 666 by the Council of Grand Justices has declared unconstitutional the first clause of Article 80 of the Social Order Maintenance Act, under which sex workers, but not their customers, are fined. The council also declared that the clause would be voided in two years’ time.

We heartily agree with this decision. Following a campaign by Taipei’s licensed prostitutes in 1997, countless grassroots sex workers have sacrificed their lives, blood and tears. Thanks to the hard work of prostitution rights activists and supporting organizations, the call for decriminalizing the industry is finally gaining wider public support.

Even the few organizations that used to oppose the effort now agree that prostitutes should not be penalized. This shows that people have gradually freed themselves from moralistic and restrictive prejudices about sex. The latest ruling is a new milestone on this path, and it sets a positive example for Asia and for ethnic Chinese everywhere.

In our view, neither sex workers nor consumers should be punished for involvement in consensual sex transactions. However, where the business of sex affects the public interest, such as problems with public health, location of sex transactions, labor protection and prevention of associated criminal activity, the state should take appropriate measures to deal with these problems.

We suggest that the Cabinet and the legislature catch up with this gradually forming social consensus by recognizing that neither prostitutes nor their clients should be penalized.

They should then draft a law on the management of sex transactions between adults, along with complementary measures, and scrap Article 80 of the Act. A statement by the Ministry of the Interior in June that sex transactions conducted outside specified zones would continue to be regulated by the Act indicates that the direction of legislative amendment remains unclear.

Besides, as the grand justices stated: “No matter what policies political bodies choose to control sexual transactions in the future, they must bear in mind that the present interpretation has been made in consideration of the hardship suffered by grassroots sex workers compelled by a combination of many kinds of disadvantage.”

The ministry once promised to listen to sex workers in the process of amending the law, but it has not invited a single sex worker to take part in the policy formulation process.

As “Meizi,” a sex worker active on the streets, said: “Academics have never done sex work themselves, so how can they know what kind of arrangement is suitable for our needs?”

On the question of where sex-related businesses should be located, there should be appropriate restrictions that reflect local circumstances. Such areas could be delimited positively or negatively, and designating zones for sex transactions could be an option.

However, we cannot see how the draft proposed by the ministry in June would provide a guarantee of employment for middle-aged, elderly and underprivileged sex workers. The government should give such sex workers a chance to survive in a self-employed, self-managed capacity. At the same time, the authorities should actively propose better welfare and employment policies for grassroots sex workers so that those lacking resources have a wider variety of options.

Finally, as legal amendments are discussed over the two-year transitional period, we ask that city mayors and county commissioners implement the National Police Agency’s directive that police officers not receive merits for arresting sex workers. Local officials should not follow the example of Kaohsiung, Taipei and Taichung, which, when hosting the World Games, Deaflympics and National Games, harassed street vendors and sex workers because they wanted to give their cities a facelift.

We hope law enforcement agencies investigating sex work-related cases will take up a suggestion by Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Hsieh Wen-ting and respect the spirit of compassion and tolerance embodied elsewhere in the Social Order Maintenance Act by imposing light penalties — or no penalty at all.


Chung Chun-chu and Chang Jung-che are, respectively, the chief executive officer and policy director of the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS).

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editori ... 2003458501


Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters
www.coswas.org





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[Marc of Frankfurt]

Sexbiz steht vor der Legalisierung:

Upholding public good and rights of sex trade


By Chung Chun-chu, chief executive officer of the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) and Wu Jo-ying, secretary at COSWAS


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editori ... 03485998/1



Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah said recently that sex trade workers could be allowed to work in “individual studios” of three to five workers not restricted to specific red light districts, although they should be kept out of residential districts or areas where schools, universities or places of worship are located.

...

many towns and cities in Taiwan are not strictly zoned: It is quite common for any given district to be both residential and commercial at the same time. This presents considerable problems for how this proposal could be policed. We feel that this is where the crux of the problem lies.

...

The relationship between sex trade workers and the community is not a zero-sum game: It is not the case that one side necessarily has to gain at the expense of the other. If prostitution is legalized, sex trade workers will have an incentive to form workers’ organizations and regulate themselves. With the assistance and coordinated effort of apartment committees, community leaders and even the police, it might be possible to both work for the public good as well as to advance sex workers’ rights.





Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters
www.coswas.org

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Red light fight: sex work in Taiwan


Plan to legalize prostitution has sparked debate between women's and worker's rights groups.


Fotodokumentation
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/chin ... n-sex-work

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Group calls for vote on sex trade legality

RED LIGHT FLASHING: With the ban on prostitution set to expire in November, supporters and opponents of legalization both oppose the government’s proposed 'special districts'


By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Gao Jyh-peng, left, and DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi criticize the government during a press conference yesterday over news that it will allow local governments to establish legal red-light districts.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

The Alliance against Sexual Exploitation yesterday urged the government to put to a referendum a plan by the Ministry of the Interior to legalize prostitution in designated areas.

“We are opposed to making prostitution an industry and a job, because the sex trade is essentially exploitation of the female body,” Lee Li-fen, secretary-general of End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism Taiwan, one of the alliance’s member groups, told a news conference at the legislature yesterday morning.

“The ministry is trying to shirk its responsibility by saying it respects local governments and authorizing them to decide whether to create prostitution zones in their city or county,” Lee said. “If the ministry really cares about what local residents think, they should put the issue ... to a referendum.”

Taiwan Women’s Link secretary-general Tsai Wan-fen said that creating red light districts would not resolve social issues related to the sex industry, such as crime.

Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation executive director Kang Shu-hua said if the government cared about economically disadvantaged women’s right to work, it should come up with other solutions.

“Rather than legalizing the sex industry to open [work opportunities] for the economically disadvantaged, as government officials have put it, the ministry should come up with actions to improve women’s welfare and ameliorate employment conditions for women,” Kang said. “Allowing women to sell their bodies isn’t helping.”

The ministry announced on Wednesday that after a clause in the Social Order Maintenance Act banning prostitution expires in November, it would allow local governments to set up special districts in which the sex trade would be permitted, while selling or buying sex services outside those areas would be prohibited by law.

The policy has drawn sharp criticism from groups that support and oppose the legalization of the sex industry, with one side saying the measures are too restrictive, while the other said the sex industry should not be legalized at all.

Economically disadvantaged women need jobs, but not sex jobs,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying said. “The sex industry neither satisfies the needs of economically disadvantaged women, nor does it protect the rights of sex workers. It only satisfies men’s desires.”

Huang has proposed legislation penalizing clients, rather than the service provider, in the sex trade.



www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archive ... 2003500311

[fraences]

Taiwan nimmt Vorreiterrolle bei Bekämpfung des Menschenhandels in Asien ein
Nicht nur Bekämpfung des Menschenhandels, sondern auch verstärkter Schutz der Opfer.


Vize-Innenminister Tseng Chong-ming hat sich gestern zu Taiwans Bemühungen im Kampf gegen den Menschenhandel geäußert. Taiwan wurde dieses Jahr zum zweiten Mal in Folge vom Bericht des US-Außenministeriums als Land in der höchsten der drei Kategorien eingestuft.
Tseng führt dies nicht nur auf die Bekämpfung des Menschenhandels zurück, sondern auch auf den verstärkten Schutz der Opfer. “Wir haben bis jetzt 21 Aufnahmezentren eingerichtet. Dies hat das Innenministerium zusammen mit der Kabinettkommission für Arbeit getan. Seit vergangenem Jahr wurden 324 Fälle dort behandelt.”
Im Bericht des US-Außenministeriums sind in Asien nur Taiwan und Südkorea in der ersten Kategorie eingestuft. Die erste Stufe bedeutet, dass der betreffende Staat das Problem erkannt hat und angemessen dagegen vorgeht.
Länder wie Japan, Singapur und Hongkong dagegen seien in die Kategorie zwei eingeteilt, so Taiwans Vize-Innenminister.

http://www.china-observer.de/?x=entry:e ... 819-145119

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Activists from the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) and allied labor groups rally outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday to call for complete decriminalization of the sex industry.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times


COSWAS calls for decriminalization of sex industry


By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter

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 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.

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 seeks to penalize the client, but not the sex worker, while a third version proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Li-wun 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 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 said after the meeting.

On the other hand, DPP caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang 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.


www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archive ... 2003515219

[nina777]

4.11.2011

Taiwan legalisiert Prostitution in Rotlichtbezirken

Taipei - Taiwan legalisiert mit einem neuen Gesetz die Prostitution in Rotlichtbezirken. Das Gesetz, das am Freitag verabschiedet wurde, beendet ein jahrzehntelanges Verbot, das zwar die Prostituierten kriminalisierte, nicht aber ihre Zuhälter.

Die Gemeinden können über die Grenzen der neuen Bezirke selbst entscheiden. Das neue Gesetz sieht vor, dass alle Beteiligten einer Prostitution, die außerhalb der Zonen ihrem Gewerbe nachgehen, eine Geldstrafe von bis zu 1.000 Dollar zahlen müssen. Die Strafen für Zuhälter können 1.600 Dollar erreichen. Innenminister Chiang Yi-hua erklärte, die Prostitution werde in den Rotlichtbezirken toleriert.

http://www.net-tribune.de/nt/node/72549 ... htbezirken

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

Members of the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters COSWAS perform a skit outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday protesting against proposals they say are unfair to people working in the sex industry.



Sex workers slam party inaction

SAY ONE THING:The head of the sex workers collective said that even though the KMT and DPP purport to be open and progressive, their behavior says otherwise


By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter

The Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) yesterday lashed out at both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), accusing them of reluctance to propose a real solution for sex workers as a clause in the Social Order Maintenance Act that penalizes sex workers is due to expire.

Declared unconstitutional by the Council of Grand Justices three years ago, a clause in the Social Order Maintenance Act that penalizes sex workers, but not their clients, will expire on Sunday.

[ Die Deutsche Pressenachricht oben erwähnt Zuhälter statt Kunden. Sehr interessante Bedeutungsverschiebung! Anm. ]

The Cabinet has proposed amendments to the law to authorize local governments to create red-light districts where the sex trade is allowed, while it would remain banned outside those areas.

DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying also proposed amendments to penalize only the client, not the sex worker.

KMT Legislator Cheng Li-wun has also proposed her own law revision to totally decriminalize the sex trade. However, her proposal has not received much support from colleagues.

“The KMT said that it supports allowing the sex trade to a certain extent with appropriate management, and that’s why the Cabinet has proposed the ‘red-light district’ plan,” COSWAS executive director Chung Chun-chu told a press conference held in front of the Legislative Yuan.

“But there’s neither ‘allowing the trade to a certain extent’ nor ‘appropriate management’ in the Cabinet plan — which is supported by most KMT lawmakers — because no local government is willing to -designate red-light districts, and thus it’s a de facto complete ban on the sex trade,” Chung said.

Responding to Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah’s earlier remarks that the designation of red-light districts “could be discussed later after the law revision is passed,” Chung said: “Well, ‘discussing it later’ doesn’t mean anything for sex workers, because waiting for one more day means that they are not able to work and make a living for an extra day.”

[ Eine vergleichbare Situation wie in Wien, wo erst mit dem neuen Prostitutionsgebiet der bestehenden Strichgebiete in Wohngebieten verboten werden, aber über 4 neue Strichgebiete erst in Zukunft entschieden werden soll... Anm. ]

Although DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP caucus have criticized the Cabinet proposal, saying it would not work regardless of whether the law penalizes the prostitute or the client, or allows red-light districts, Chung said that the DPP has also failed to propose any concrete solutions.

“Both parties try to pretend that they’re open-minded and progressive, but what they do is different from what they say,” Chung said.

Although it supported complete decriminalization of the sex industry, Chung said that the COSWAS would be willing to compromise on the red-light district proposal “if a clause is added to the red-light -district deal that local governments should designate red-light districts within six months after the amendment is passed or the sex trade should remain completely legal within cities or counties where the local government fails to do so.”

www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archive ... 2003517444



Stark, wie ausführlich die Sexworker-Interessenvertreter ihre Forderungen in die Zeitung bekommen haben. Bei uns gibt es gerade mal einzeilige Zitate. So hat bis jetzt anscheinend nur die deutsche TAZ die Stellungname vom Sexworker Forum zum neuen Wiener Prostitutionsgesetz gelesen...

[Tilopa]

Das Tauwetter in Taiwan hält an:
In der Hafenstadt Keelung (390.000 Einwohner) soll ein offizielles Rotlichtviertel entstehen.

Taiwan's Keelung considers special prostitution area

2013-07-17 05:26 PM
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Keelung told the Ministry of Interior it wanted to receive more information about the setting up a special red-light district for prostitution, reports said Wednesday.

The issue was expected to play a major part in the December 2014 elections for a new mayor and a city council in the harbor town, the Chinese-language United Evening News said in a front-page story.

The city already came up with the idea in 2011 but since then little happened because residents feared a rise in crime and falling property values in the area eventually chosen for the project, reports said.

Incumbent Mayor Chang Tung-jung said the letter to the MOI only meant to request information about the law allowing cities to go ahead with special areas for the sex trade. The city government’s departments would study and evaluate the possibility before it could even become official policy, he told reporters.

The law was amended more than a year ago but no cities or counties had yet come forward to implement the policy in their area, the United Evening News wrote. Chang emphasized that there were no detailed, concrete plans for Keelung yet and that the project was still in its earliest phase. Because no Taiwanese towns had experience in the matter, Keelung needed to obtain more information from the central government first, the mayor said.

One of the few politicians who had already declared an interest in running for mayor, former Cabinet spokesman Philip Yang, said there should be a thorough evaluation before such a decision was made because it could have a serious impact on the residents’ daily lives and on the city's image.

Yang said the city council had not even discussed the topic, let alone reached a decision, and no opinion polls had been conducted to consult the population. He said he would stand on the side of the public, while the problem of how to sell Keelung as a tourist destination should also be taken into account. Yang recently resigned as vice secretary-general of the National Security Council, but has not yet announced an official bid for mayor.

Presidential Vice Secretary-General Lo Chih-chiang, who is also often mentioned as a potential Kuomintang mayoral candidate for Keelung, said the establishment of a red-light district was more than just a question about legalizing prostitution, since it would also affect the town's image.

He said he advocated the organization of public hearings where residents could voice their concerns about a red-light district and studies of similar projects in cities overseas. Reports said the city government was considering turning Keelung's Long'an Street, an area packed with teahouses and small restaurants, into a local version of Tokyo's Shinjuku area.

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party Vice Secretary-General Lin Yu-chang, who was reportedly also considering a bid for mayor, said there were at least 100 more important problems to be solved in the harbor town. The city government was completely mislaying its priorities, Lin said, calling for progress and change instead of red-light districts.

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_c ... id=2259053