Loi Marthe Richard
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Through Paris and World War II
Build up to the law
On 13 December 1945, Marthe Richard, elected councillor of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, presented to the Conseil municipal de Paris a proposal for the closure of Paris brothels. In her speech, she did not attack prostitutes as much as society, responsible in her view, of "organised and patent debauchery" and organized crime, which benefits from regulated prostitution. She also reminded the council that prostitution was complicit with the German occupation during WW2. The proposal was voted and on 20 December 1945, the police prefect, Charles Luizet, was authorised to close, without notice, the houses of prostitution in the Department of the Seine within 3 months (by 15 March 1946 at the latest).
Encouraged by this success, Marthe Richard started a press campaign for a vote on a law generalising these measures to all France. It is supported by the "Ligue pour le relèvement de la moralité publique" (League of Social and Moral Action) and by the Minister of Public Health and Population, Robert Prigent.
On 9 April 1946, MP Marcel Roclore presented the report of the Committee on the Family, Population and Public Health, and concluded that the closure of brothels was necessary. The deputy Pierre Dominjon, member of the Ligue pour le relèvement de la moralité publique, tabled a proposal for a law which was voted on 13 April 1946 in the Chamber of Deputies. The closure of brothels takes effect from 6 November 1946. Withdrawing the administrative authorizations without compensation marked the end of legalisation and the start of a policy of abolitionism.
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Consequences
After the adoption of the law, Marthe Richard ensured that article 5, which ended keeping national files on prostitution, in which she was still recorded, was enacted. These police records were replaced by a health and social file for prostitutes (law of 24 April 1946) in order to prevent prostitutes with a STI trying to evade the treatment of their disease. This law was little applied and was repealed on 28 July 1960, the date of French ratification of the United Nations Convention of 2 December 1949 for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. (France's late ratification of the convention was due to the existence of brothels in its colonial empire).
Approximately 1,400 establishments were closed, including 195 in Paris (177 official establishments): the best known were Le Chabanais, Le Sphinx, La Fleur blanche, One-Two-Two but also the maisons d'abattage ("slaughterhouses") such as Le Fourcy and the Lanterne Verte.
This law caused smiles at the Brigade Mondaine of the 3rd floor of 36, quai des Orfèvres since it emanated from Marthe Richard, who was herself a prostitute until around 1915, when she wanted to make a clean sweep of her past. The police do not like the law because it risks depriving it of one of its sources of information (from the prostitutes). Prostitution was still a legal activity, only its organization, exploitation (procuring), its visible manifestations and offense of soliciting are prohibited by law, however the police continue to tolerate bawdy houses. Many brothel owners turned themselves into owners of clandestine inns concentrated around French and American military barracks as well as in major cities. Whilst the law provided for the collection of prostitutes in "reception and outplacement centers", many continued their activities clandestinely.
Critics of French prostitution policy, such as Mouvement du Nid, question how effective this was, its implementation, and whether it really closed the "maisons". For instance, they point to the presence of military brothels in Algeria till 1960.