The commissioner of CHRAJ, Mr Joseph Whittal has proposed a controversial if not unconventional idea for dealing with the numerous issues facing prostitutes in Ghana.
Women who engage in the oldest profession known to man in this country often have to deal with endless challenges, from police raids to working in dangerous conditions and facing diseases and on and on.
Speaking at a recent forum on the topic ‘Decriminalizing Poverty, Advocacy towards the Decriminalization of Petty Offences in Ghana”, Whittal said the key to solving most of the issues facing prostitutes is to legalize the practice as has been done in many countries across the world.
“Prostitution could be regularized as done in different jurisdictions, we need to decriminalize it and find different ways of dealing with them.” he said.
“These laws were inherited from the colonial English Common laws and they are in our statutory books, times have changed and we need to remove them to avoid the incarceration of the vulnerable, who mostly commit these offenses out of need.”, he added.
It is true that several countries have legalized prostitution and often when legalization takes effect, government takes steps to protect the vulnerable women who end up in that profession rather than trying to punish them when most of them are simply trying to make a living due to circumstances beyond their control.