Belgium law granting labor rights to sex workers
goes into effect
Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A new law in Belgium granting labor rights to sex workers went into effect Sunday after the European country voted in 2022 to decriminalize sex work, in what advocacy groups have heralded as a major step forward for the rights of sex workers globally.
"Today is a very historical day for us sex workers. Belgium is the very first country who has a work regulation for sex workers who work for a boss," a sex worker going by the name Mel said Sunday in a video shared by the Belgian Union of Sex Workers, or UTSOPI.
"I am a very proud Belgium sex worker right now. UTSOPI hand a very difficult job to make this happen."
The law was passed by the Belgian parliament with a vote of 93 votes in favor, 33 abstentions and zero votes against in May 2024, ending two years of lobbying by UTSOPI and its partners Violett and Espace P.
Specifically, it enshrines major protections for sex workers including the right to refuse a client, the right to refuse a sexual act, the right to end a sexual act at any point and the right to perform a sexual in the manner in which they wish to perform it. And, if a sex worker fears for their safety, they can refuse to sit behind a window or advertise their services.
Belgian law already makes rape and nonconsensual sex acts illegal, but a sex worker's employment will now be safeguarded when they choose to not engage in sex acts that they do not want to perform. In interviews conducted with sex workers by the BBC, they all recounted how they had been pressured into sex acts against their will.
Further, sex workers can now sign legal contracts with their employers which they can end at any time without notice. If sex workers end a work contract, they do not lose their rights to unemployment. And employers must equip their premises with panic buttons.
"Thanks to this law, sex workers will also be able to work under an employment contract, thus gaining access to social security: pension, unemployment, health insurance, family benefits, annual vacation, maternity leave," UTSOPI said in a statement.
"At the same time, the law ensures that sex workers in the workplace are protected against job-related risks and conditions are imposed on employers."
And though the union championed the legal measures, it also warned in comments to The Guardian that the law could be used to reduce or eliminate sex work in certain municipalities and local governments.
Netherlands still doing too little to protect children
from exploitation
The Netherlands must do more to protect children from exploitation, the Center against Child and Human Trafficking (CKM) said in a new report published on Tuesday. The research looked at all conversations with victims of human trafficking held between 2019 and 2023 on the anonymous chat platform of Fier, an expertise and treatment center in the field of violence in dependent relationships.
During that period, almost 600 minor victims of sexual or criminal exploitation reached out on the chat platform, the CKM reported. According to the center, that is over twice as many as the number of formally registered victims in that period. “The fact that this is not changing is unacceptable,” said Shamir Ceuleers, head of the CKM. “We cannot accept this as normal.” Many of the victims on the chat platform had been exploited for a year or more.
In the report, the CKM repeated several recommendations that it had already made but which, according to the center, have not been sufficiently listened to. The government should address online platforms in their task of preventing or stopping sexual exploitation. “It is high time that the Minister of Justice and Security intervenes and introduces legislation,” said Ceuleers.
It also remains important to gain more knowledge and insight into parents as perpetrators of exploitation. In the years 2019 to 2023, almost 130 conversations showed that the victim was exploited by one or both parents. Within the approach to human trafficking, this group of perpetrators still forms a “blind spot,” the report states.
Furthermore, a “targeted strategy” must be developed to prosecute clients in human trafficking. Since 2022, clients have been punishable if they could have known that they were buying sex from a victim of human trafficking. However, CKM research into convicted clients shows that their prosecution by the police and the Public Prosecution Service is often still considered a by-catch. The center, therefore, recommends a follow-up study into how the criminalization is implemented.
Finally, the report shows that how people first respond to victims telling about their exploitation situation can be “very decisive” for the subsequent trajectory of victims. That is why the CKM believes that a study should be conducted into involving the social environment of victims in organizing protection and care. 
Reporting by ANP
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