The ruling had been keenly awaited
The ruling had been keenly awaited AFP

A French law criminalising clients of sex workers does not infringe on the European Convention on Human Rights, the continent's top rights court ruled Thursday.

A group of 261 men and women sex workers had turned to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the 2016 law, which threatens buyers of sex with fines of up to 1,500 euros ($1,630), which can more than double for repeat offenders.

The rarely-enforced law was hailed as a major step forward by campaigners hoping to eliminate prostitution.

But the claimants backed by around 20 associations said it had pushed them into the shadows and increased their risk of harm, including assault and infection with sexually transmitted diseases.

After failing with their challenge in French courts, they turned to the Strasbourg-based ECHR in 2019.

They argued that the law endangers their physical and mental health, as well as harming their own and their clients' right to a private life and sexual freedom under the Convention's Article 8.

Judges said they were "fully aware of the undeniable difficulties and risks to which prostituted people are exposed while exercising their activity", including their health and safety.

But they added that these were "already present and observed before the adoption of the law" in 2016, being attributed at the time to the since-repealed law against soliciting.

The judges said "there is no consensus on the question of whether the negative effects described by the claimants are directly caused by the... criminalisation of buying sexual acts, or their sale."

They went to note there is no consensus whether the negative effects "are inherent or intrinsic to the phenomenon of prostitution... or a whole array of social and behavioural factors."

French authorities had "struck a fair balance between the competing interests at play," they added, finding no violation of Article 8.

Anna Blus, a women's rights researcher at Amnesty International, criticised the ruling, saying in a statement that "criminalising sex work increases discrimination and stigmatisation and jeopardises the safety of sex workers".

Laws against prostitution produce "obstacles for sex workers in accessing housing, healthcare and other critical services, and can lead to abuse, violence, harassment and extortion," she added.

Amnesty submitted its research into criminalisation of sex work in several countries to the court as it considered the French case, with judges referring to it in their published reasoning.