Vatican Targets "Johns"

The Vatican called Monday for laws that punish clients of prostitutes as well as laws to protect women from what it called a "modern form of slavery." The recommendations stemmed from a two-day symposium on prostitution and human trafficking the Vatican's office for migrants and itinerants hosted in June.

In addition, women forced into prostitution must be protected by the law because they are victims of violence and exploitation and have had their fundamental human rights violated, it said.

During the symposium, which brought together several dozen religious and lay people, the issue of providing condoms to prostitutes to protect them from AIDS was raised. However, there was no mention of the issue in the communique. The Vatican opposes artificial contraception.

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