The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Greece for violating the privacy rights of a group of women arrested and publicly identified in 2012 as HIV-positive prostitutes who allegedly endangered public health.
They did so rightfully. The public interest was way grater than the privacy rights here.
Agreed. Prostitution is legal, yet they were operating illegally, and subjecting clients to a deadly, transmissible disease.
These women essentially provided public services. If any other type of provider of services was endangering the public, there would be no quarrel with naming the guilty parties, so that people who used those services could assess the risk.
Just because the service was sex, doesn’t mean the public should all the sudden be kept in the dark as to whom might be affected.
this makes no sense. as people mentioned its legal there so this is just part of the regulation to protect the public due to that. Spock would have a cow when he heard of this ruling:
"In the run-up to Greece’s 2012 elections, the country’s health minister at the time, Andreas Loverdos, championed a crackdown on unlicensed brothels following a spike in reported HIV cases. He had warned of an increase in the incidence of customers having unprotected sex with prostitutes for an additional fee.
Prostitution is legal in Greece, with regular health checks for sex workers required.
As part of the crackdown, women were rounded up from illegal brothels and streets and forced to undergo HIV testing at police stations. Criminal charges were filed against more than 30 women, with authorities publishing the personal details, photos and HIV status of most of them, along with the accusation that they had deliberately endangered their clients by having sex without condoms."
alledgedly endangered public health
If prostitution is legal, with the requirement of regular health checks, a prostitute operating illegally and not participating in those regular health and safety checks, is indeed endangering public health. There seems little gray area.