Prostitutes Meet, Pledge Rights Fight

AMSTERDAM —  Prostitutes from 10 countries, many of them wearing masks to hide their identities, announced Friday the establishment of an international organization to fight for their rights, including freedom from prosecution and equal treatment under tax and labor laws.

At the end of what they called the first International Prostitutes’ Congress, about 150 women agreed that their new “International Committee for Prostitutes’ Rights” should lobby politicians and governments and try to “re-educate” society.

“Organizations like the U.N. and the European Parliament are going to be addressed, contacted, squeezed, manipulated--whatever we can do,” the spokeswoman, who identified herself as Margo St. James of San Francisco, told a news conference.

They approved a declaration saying that adult prostitution should be legalized and follow standard business codes, with special clauses to prevent abuse of prostitutes.

“The most bitter fact is our enforced isolation and stigmatization,” said a West German prostitute who identified herself only as Cora.

“We want to ask the public to . . . understand we are women with human feelings like anybody else,” she added.

To raise money for their new organization, the women held a masked ball Friday night in a leading Amsterdam hotel and said they would organize similar events in Paris and other cities.

The prostitutes attending the conference came from the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago and Australia.