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German brothels get new ‘ethical sex seal’ for prostitution

  • August 28, 2017

The German brothel owners’ association, BSD, has made a bid to introduce “controlled quality, transparency and service” to the country’s sex industry with the launch of a “seal of approval” for brothels.

In a statement, the BSD said that the purpose of the seal was to “counter the general vilification and many false conceptions about the structures and working procedures” in brothels.

The seal comes in three categories, or “stages,” the most important being the stage 1 badge, which establishes who the owner of the brothel is, how they can be reached, how big the brothel is, and guarantees that it meets not just the minimum working standards of Germany’s prostitution law, but also certain other standards.

The seal also requires owners to sign a pledge to oppose violence, forced prostitution and crime, and to provide fair, responsible and hygienic working conditions. To get the badge, the brothels must include certain facilities for the prostitutes, including spy-holes in doors, lockers, and alarms in all the rooms. The owners also have to prove that all the prostitutes are self-employed and working voluntarily, and can decide which customers they want to serve and which services they want to provide.

Room in brothel (picture-alliance/dpa/A. Novopashina)

Brothels must ensure clean, safe conditions to get the seal

The other two stage badges include a more thorough overall assessment of the establishment and involve a kind of star – or “crown” – rating, from 1 to 6, for additional services like catering, a gym and events.

An unpopular law

The BSD believes the seal is a better alternative to the recently introduced amendments to Germany’s prostitution laws, which force sex workers to register with local authorities and undergo health checks. Sex workers’ groups say the mandatory registration will force many prostitutes into more dangerous working conditions.

“This seal has many advantages,” said BSD chairwoman Stephanie Klee. “For one thing it means we can look at the individual establishments, how good they are, how they can be categorized, and give them an incentive to improve. And we can tell sex workers, customers, and authorities that these are good, serious places that have transparency.”

Prostitution is legal in Germany, but the prostitutes must be self-employed, so brothels effectively exist as simply places that furnish them with a safe environment to work in. So far, some 24 German brothels have already been awarded the seal, the BSD said, with the first given last week to a brothel in the Bavarian town of Rosenheim.

Prostitute in Germany (Getty Images/AFP/J. Macdougall)

Prostitutes in Germany must be self-employed

Two-class society

Sex workers’ associations welcomed the initiative – though with some caution. “Improvements for working conditions are always the right step,” said Johanna Weber, Berlin spokeswoman for the BesD erotic and sex-worker association. “The paths to that are especially difficult in our industry and therefore diverse – if a seal of quality leads to establishments undertaking optimizations, then that can be one step.”

On the other hand, Weber was worried that the seal could create a “two-class society,” because the seal was only available to members of the BSD. “Small establishments often can’t afford such a membership.”

Klee didn’t see that as an essential problem with the seal, though. “The prostitution industry is hardly organized at all,” she said. “I think it would be right and useful if the brothel owners and sex workers finally joined forces to be heard – so I see joining an association of some kind as essential.” She also said that the BSD had received several inquiries from brothels that were not yet members.

The seal received heavy criticism from opponents of prostitution. Huschke Mau, a former sex worker who founded Sisters, a volunteers’ organization that helps women leave the industry, dismissed the seal as merely “a prize that the brothels award themselves.”

Article source: http://www.dw.com/en/german-brothels-get-new-ethical-sex-seal-for-prostitution/a-40274841?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom

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