DHAKA, March 15 (AFP) - The High Court in predominantly Muslim Bangladesh has declared that prostitution is "not illegal" in a landmark verdict after a long legal battle.
Many human rights groups Wednesday rejoiced over the ruling delivered by judges Muhammad Fazlul Karim and Mohammad Wahab Miah late Tuesday.
The judges said "the profession is not illegal since they do it to earn a living," adding prostitutes could only be rehabilitated voluntarily. "Otherwise, they should not be forced to stop doing their job...The right to livelihood of sex workers is enforceable as a fundamental right," they said.
The case was heard after a writ was filed by several human rights groups against the eviction of several thousand prostitutes in nearby Narayanganj port last year.
A packed court heard the verdict, which said the eviction of the sex workers and placing some into government vagrant homes was "without lawful authority and without any sanction of law."
The court ordered officials to "free" sex workers who were in vagrant homes, unless they wanted to stay. Sex workers had the right to free movement, which could not be curtailed by force, the judges said.
The court said the evicted women could go to the civil courts to get back possession of their rented homes.
Several thousand prostitutes were forced out from their rented quarters in July last year by police after a campaign by ruling Awami League local legislator Shamim Osman to shut down the red light district.
He was quoted as saying by newspapers that residents of the business district did not want to be identified with the brothels, the oldest in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh constitution says, "The state shall adopt effective measures to prevent prostitution and gambling."
However, the judges said, "The right to life, as guaranteed by the Constitution under article 31, could be treated as the right to livelihood, which is a fundamental right that cannot be taken away except in accordance with due process of law."
Most rights groups were jubilant Wednesday over the verdict.
Reverend Father Richard William Timm of the Hotline Bangladesh group said: "We are happy to see that the law has spoken for what is right."
On the constitution's anti-prostitution clause, he said, "The High Court has ruled and that is enough for now ... until it is taken to the Supreme Court."
Judicial sources said the state might appeal the verdict.
Lawyer Sigma Huda of the Bangladesh Society for Enforcement of Human Rights said the judgment "is the recognition of the sex workers and their rights to movement and rights to choice [of livelihood]."
However, Salma Ali of the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association told the UNB news agency that giving prostitutes freedom would create social problems. "We know the eviction is illegal but we want prostitution reduced with the passage of time by rehabilitating them through society and psychologically," she said.
