The plenary session of Calpe Town Council has approved the municipal ordinance to eradicate prostitution and trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It is a regulation that represents a paradigm shift with respect to the fight against this scourge carried out in recent years. In this sense, it not only seeks to prosecute those who consume and promote prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, but also to protect the rights of those who practice prostitution.
This ordinance results Calpe's membership in the network of trafficking-free municipalities in the Valencian Community, which it joined in September 2021. This led to the creation of a prevention committee against trafficking and prostitution, which proposed the need for such an ordinance. Until now, the only Calpe Town Council regulation that referred to prostitution was the ordinance on citizen coexistence, which barely dedicated a few lines to this issue.
This new regulation, which has been drawn up in collaboration with the Association of Women for Equality of Calpe and the Local Police, recognises all people who work as prostitutes as victims and points out that prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation are manifestations of gender violence. Therefore, according to this ordinance, prostituted women will not be persecuted in their condition as victims, but rather the objective is to help them.
In this sense, it establishes that municipal services must facilitate women victims of prostitution and sexual exploitation, their right and access to social, health, training and employment resources, among other actions. It also proposes the elaboration of a comprehensive municipal action plan that will include the resources available for these victims in the municipality, so that they can integrate socially, economically, and occupationally into society.
On the other hand, the ordinance includes a detailed regime of infractions and sanctions. In this sense, it will punish consumption, advertising and conduct that may promote or facilitate the consumption of prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation.
It will be considered a minor offence to disseminate advertising that promotes the use of prostitution, as well as conduct that favours this practice, which may include bringing prostitution seekers to places where prostitutes are found.
Serious offences include those that involve directly or indirectly requesting or accepting paid sexual services or promoting sexual services in advertising media installed in the municipality of Calpe, among others. The latter offences will be considered very serious when they take place in places located less than two hundred metres away from educational centres or places frequented by children and young people, or less than 200 metres away from places where a public event takes place, or in remote areas of the municipality that make victims of prostitution more vulnerable and make it more difficult for them to escape.
Penalties can be up to 750 euros for minor offences, up to 1,500 euros for serious offences and up to 3,000 euros for very serious offences.
"We want to make it very clear that women who work as prostitutes are victims and that through this ordinance we aim to promote their integration into society, accompany them and help them, and therefore it is the consumer, the pimp and all those who favour or contribute to the practice of this sexual exploitation that violates the dignity and fundamental rights of women victims," said the councillor for Social Policy, Itziar Doval.
This point was approved with the support of all political groups.