Decriminalisation, legalisation not same

Your headline, “Parkop calls for prostitution to be legalised”, (The National Feb 20, is a misrepresentation of my views and what I said on FM100 Talk-back show on Feb 19.
What I said and expressed on the radio, which is on record, is for the act of prostitution to be decriminalised. That means abolishing the offence described by law as “prostitution” or act of giving sexual favours for money.
Decriminalisation is not the same as legalisation.
Decriminalisation means getting rid of the act of prostitution as a criminal offence under the law. It does not mean legalising the act of prostitution.
Legalising means passing a law in Parliament, which allows the act or conduct of prostitution to be conducted lawfully in PNG. I did not make such call.
My reasons for calling for decriminalisation of prostitution are two-fold:
Firstly, the offence as it is, is normally an offence against women. In that the offence is usually and in most cases enforced against women as most of the time men who are involved in prostitution are not caught. So in that sense it is discriminatory.
Secondly, the criminalisation of the act of prostitution has not stopped the offence or act of prostitution from being committed.
It is therefore a failed strategy to stop prostitution and by decriminalising the act of prostitution, we can start to deal with it seriously rather than ignoring it as we are doing to date.
I did however, express my view that it is better to legalise and regulate but qualified that on air by saying that I do not think PNG is ready now to go that far.
I only expressed that view in light of the need to regulate activities of sex workers so that we can reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS infections by unregulated activities of sex workers and their clients.
I hope the above explains my views as it can be misinterpreted by your headline. I am however ready to have a rational debate on the matter.

Powes Parkop
LLB LLM MP
Governor
NCD.