I would make two distinctions. On the one hand, the right to engage in prostitution does not exist in any international human rights convention or charter. I think that what groups like Stella are demanding, and it is legitimate for them to do so, is the right to dignity and recognition as a separate person who has rights. From this stems the idea of supporting the decriminalization of women who engage in prostitution, as the Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle has been doing.
The problem is not that women engage in prostitution. The problem is that our society, which is based on patriarchal precepts, that is to say inequalities between men and women, present the institution of prostitution as something ordinary or as a trade like any other—particularly over the past 10, 15 or 20 years—whereas we know full well that this is far from being the case. I am certain that the women at Stella are aware of the extent to which women who currently engage in prostitution are more likely than anyone else to be raped, beaten, or victimized in one way or another. They think that the solution would be to legalize prostitution, because this would make these women nice little independent workers, and that this would liberate them.
Our perception is different. We feel that the institution of prostitution concerns not only the women who engage in it, because it is a barrier to equality between men and women. That being the case, prostitution needs to be considered differently. The question is not whether women who engage in prostitution individually feel good, but whether our society wants to develop or tolerate the existence of prostitution.
It is also a matter of survival. I don't know what other term to use. In any event, it is the reality of women here or elsewhere, unfortunately, because of inequalities between men and women. Very often, one way to be able to eat is indeed to prostitute oneself. At that point, I believe we are speaking of survival. It has nothing to do with whether or not it is a job like any other. It is rather a reality. I do not believe that our society should accept that the only possibility or the only option to escape from poverty or to be able to eat requires that part of the population must prostitute itself.