Prostitute at sixteen years in Switzerland and it’s legal!

Reading Le Matin Bleu the other day made me feel blue. That’s ok because a moment later I started seeing red and heated up a bit.

Why?

The story of the day was the fact that in the whorehouses of Zurich girls as young as sixteen are being offered to clients. What is more upsetting is the fact that it is legal.

In Switzerland the legal age of sexual maturity is fixed at sixteen. Therefore, it is legal for a girl (yes, girl) of sixteen to prostitute her body. I find this very upsetting.

What is more upsetting is that there is an important glitch in all of this legality. Le Matin online reports:

Remarque de spécialiste: la loi suisse qui n’interdit pas la prostitution des mineurs semble en contradiction avec les conventions internationales signées par notre pays: «La convention 182 [de l'Organisation internationale du Travail] interdit justement la prostitution des mineurs».

Basic translation: The Swiss law does not forbid the prostitution of minors. However, it is in contradiction with International Labor Conventions signed by Switzerland. The Convention 182 (Convention concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, Geneva, June 17, 1999) forbids the prostitution of minors.

I think that the prostitution of minors should be legally stopped and it should be done immediately. I can not for the life of me understand why the Swiss allow such a horrible thing to happen in what I (and the world) thought of as a modern and intelligent country.

The prostitution of minors isn’t a modern or progressive way of thinking. It is not intelligent.

Even more to the point it is not moral even if it is legal by Swiss law. Shouldn’t the laws of a country protect the children of that country?