3,424 signatures
Petition is addressed to: Deutscher Bundestag Petitionsausschuss
We, members of the Ella network - as women affected by prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, together with our allies and supporters, demand that prostitution be abolished as a system of gender-specific violence, oppression and exploitation that primarily affects women and girls.
Germany needs modern legislation that respects and guarantees both human rights and gender equality: the Nordic model, also known as the equality model. [1] The decision of the European Court of Human Rights in 2024 confirms the legality of this model for dealing with prostitution. [2]
We call for the introduction and consistent implementation of a systemic approach to prostitution with five equal pillars:
1. Help for people affected by prostitution or sexual exploitation.
Decriminalisation and guaranteed state assistance to leave prostitution or other forms of the sex industry. Abolition of any taxes or levies on the performance of sexual acts for remuneration. Provision of comprehensive programmes that enable health rehabilitation, social reintegration and viable alternatives. Protection and recognition as victims of violence with the right to asylum. Help for family members of victims, especially their children.
2. Elimination of all profits from prostitution or the sexual exploitation of other people.
Criminalisation of all profiteers from prostitution or the sexual exploitation of others. Combat all forms of pimping and sex buying. Confiscation of all profits from prostitution or the sexual exploitation of others. Prohibition of any state or municipal revenue from prostitution or sexual exploitation.
3. Education about prostitution and sexual exploitation.
Social education about prostitution and other forms of the sex industry, with a focus on services for young people. Help for young people at risk and their parents. Anti-sexist education and age-appropriate education in schools. Education about gender equality and sexual self-determination in education in general. Support for organisations that provide information for those affected.
4. Prevention of prostitution and sexual exploitation.
Consistently combating the demand for prostitution, including the ban on buying sex and penalising johns as soon as they offer payment. Consent to sexual acts in return for payment must not be regarded as consent and must be considered legally invalid. Effectively combat all forms of violence against women and girls. Effective elimination of sexism, poverty and discrimination.
5. Effective work of state services.
Training and further education of all responsible institutions and services. Appropriate contact persons for those affected, enough female experts. Involvement of victims' organisations as experts and advisors in all measures. Ethical guidelines that explicitly prohibit the purchase of sex for all employees of state services.
The Nordic Model is currently the only proven model that can eliminate the causes of sexual exploitation. Simple solutions do not work when it comes to abolishing a system of violence and exploitation with an estimated annual turnover of 15 billion euros. [3] This can only be achieved with a systemic approach: Protection and help for prostituted people are guaranteed. Education brings about a lasting rethink in society. The demand for prostitution and profits from prostitution by third parties are combated. The prostitution system cannot exist without money from clients.
[1] Resolution of the European Parliament 2013/2103(INI), 2014; Resolution of the European Parliament 2022/2139(INI), 2023.
[2] Raddatz: ECHR confirms France's sex purchase ban, 25.07.2024, in Tagesschau.
[3] Doll: Facts and figures on the billion-dollar prostitution industry, 29.09.2020, in WirtschaftsWoche.
Cover picture: A brothel in Frankfurt am Main, photo by John Cameron, on unsplash.com.
Video: Documentary, Prostitution: No job like any other, 04.03.2021, in 3sat.
Reason
In the last 25 years, at least 119 women have died violently in German prostitution. [1] The state is complicit in this, as risks to the life and limb of prostitutes are accepted, despite the duty to protect fundamental rights in prostitution. [2] Our conclusion after 22 years of liberal legislation is: prostitution destroys women and produces victims of violence!
Sexual acts for payment are the complete opposite of consensual and equal sexuality. This is also confirmed by the report of the UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem. [3] Any consent to prostitution is invalid in principle, as it affects general inalienable human rights. [4] This is about commercialised systematic rape that is tolerated or even legalised by the state. Systematic rape, like any form of inhuman or degrading treatment and torture, is prohibited without exception.
German law, however, defines prostitution as a sexual service and prostitutes as persons who provide it. [5] Although prostitutes cannot refuse or revoke their consent without negative consequences, no coercion is recognised. Here, commercialised rape has been renamed a taxable service. Cruel and degrading treatment is legalised and advertised, even with female slaves. [6] Rape centres were subsidised, because that is exactly what the countless brothels in the middle of German cities are. [7] But prostitutes were obliged by the courts to pay high fees because clients were dissatisfied with the ‘service’. [8] Germany has become a pimping state and profits from the blood money from prostitution.
Buying sex is normalised: There are reports of ‘14-year-olds prostituting themselves of their own free will’ [9] or murders of prostitutes who were ‘downright tortured to death’ [10] - without serious political consequences. The demand is enormous: around 27% of men have already paid for sex, in the age group of 46 to 55-year-olds it is as high as 33.5%, i.e. one in three. The respondents reported that ‘most of their paid sex was vaginal intercourse in domestic brothels’. [11] Sex tourism to Germany is also booming, which has earned the Federal Republic the inglorious title of ‘Germany - Brothel of Europe’. We see that state sanctions against prostitutes have been legitimised. That brothels, pimps and even human traffickers received state aid. [12] That the police and judiciary are powerless. [13] The ubiquitous trivialisation of sex trafficking defies all reality and increases the number of victims of sexual exploitation.
The current law accepts that German prostitution will result in more victims of violence. What has been happening here since 2002 must be described as a permanent breach of the constitution. Sexual pleasure cannot justify people having to suffer or die for it! Germany needs legislation on prostitution that is in line with the Women's Rights Convention and the Istanbul Convention. [14] It concerns us all:
Germany must exit - finally exit the system of prostitution!
[1] Women's Department Wiesbaden: Kommunale Strategien zur Prostitution, 2024, pp. 3-4.
[2] Mack, Rommelfanger: Sexkauf. Eine rechtliche und rechtsethische Untersuchung der Prostitution, 2023, p. 187.
[3] Alsalem: Prostitution and violence against women and girls, Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, 2024.
[4] United Nations: Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, 1949.
[5] Prostitutes Protection Act, § 2, 2017.
[6] Sklavinnenstudio Abenteuerland Subkultur, Sprockhövel, since 2022.
[7] König: Keine Corona-Hilfen für zwielichtige Bordelle, 02.12.2020, in CDA.
[8] Mau: The state as pimp, 26/02/2020, in Kontext Wochenzeitung.
[9] Wuppertal: Voluntarily into prostitution at 14?, 20/11/2023, in WDR.
[10] Murder in Koblenz: Prostitute cruelly killed, 30/11/2023, in SWR.
[11] Statista: Around a quarter of men have already paid for sex, 11/11/2022.
[12] Seven brothels with forced prostitutes: ‘In fact, she is said to have been the boss of a call girl ring with forced prostitutes - and to have received 7500 euros in Corona bridging aid!’, 03/01/2022, in BZ.
[13] Sporer: ‘The Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony comes to the conclusion [...] that at least 90% of human trafficking offences remain in the dark and 83% of the investigations had to be closed.’, 12 May 2022, in Protocol of the hearing ‘Situation of prostitutes in Bavaria’, p. 34.
[14] German Bundestag: Initiatives for the protection of women and children against violence adopted, 31 January 2025.
Petition details
Petition started:
04/12/2025
Petition ends:
09/01/2025
Region:
Germany
Topic:
Civil rights
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Why people sign
Weil die Misshandlung und Ausbeutung von Frauen in der Prostitution ein Ende haben muss! Und weil der Kauf von Frauen verboten gehört!
Prostitution should not be the only option for people to survive. often prostitutes are trafficked people, selling sex against their will and not even making any money out of it. There is violence, torture, rape, drug addiction and murder involved in prostititution. Men are perpetrators and customers, mainly the prostitutes are women and children, and young men. Even if they survive they will be psychologically damaged. As a humanitarian i don't feel that prostitution on this scale is ok, the damage caused to those concerned is apalling and that the petition will hopefully bring these statistics before the courts and the country and
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I support women caught in prostitution