right to safety.
The Supreme Court of Canada struck down bans on brothels,
street solicitation, and living on the earnings of prostitution in
a unanimous 9-0 decision on Friday, and gave the Canadian
government one year to re-write the country's prostitution
laws.
While prostitution itself is technically legal in Canada, most
prostitution-related activities were previously considered
criminal offences.
In the decision, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said many
prostitutes "have no meaningful choice" but to "engage in the
risky economic activity of prostitution," and that the law
should not make such activities more dangerous.
"It makes no difference that the conduct of pimps and johns is
the immediate source of the harms suffered by prostitutes,"
McLachlin wrote.
"The impugned laws deprive people engaged in a risky, but
legal, activity of the means to protect themselves against those
risks."
The legal challenge to Canada's prostitution laws was brought
by a group of s*x workers who argued that the now- overturned restrictions put them in danger.
Katrina Pacey, a lawyer for the petitioners, called it "an
unbelievably important day for the s*x workers but also for
human rights."
"The court recognized that s*x workers have the right to
protect themselves and their safety," she said.
Last year, a lower court in the province of Ontario struck
down the ban on brothels on the grounds that it exposed s*x
workers to more danger.
Friday's ruling comes 34 years after the Supreme Court last
upheld Canada's anti-prostitution laws.
Prostitution is legal in much of Europe and Latin America,
and brothels are legal in numerous countries, including the
Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.
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