brothel keepers back to Germany. Also introduced in 1920 was the Police Offences Proclamation, which criminalised loitering and solicitation for the purpose of prostitution. There were concerns about child prostitution, and in 1921 the Girls' and Mentally Defective Women's Protection Proclamation was introduced which set the age of consent at 16. Prostitution was blamed by the authorities for African women migration to the cities from rural areas. A new regulation was introduced in 1938 requiring all "native females" in Windhoek between 18 and 60, unless legally married and living with their husbands, to undergo a medical examination every 6 months. After violent protests in March 1939 the regulation was withdrawn. Legal situation The Combating of Immoral Practices Act (Act 21 of 1980) is the main piece of legislation controlling prostitution in Namibia. The main provisions are the prohibiting of mainly third party involvement: to solicit in a public street or place to exhibit oneself in an indecent dress or manner in public view to commit “any immoral act” with another person in public (but not in private) to keep a brothel to “procure” any female to have unlawful carnal intercourse with another person, to become a prostitute, or to “become an inmate of a brothel” to entice a female to a brothel for the purpose of prostitution to knowingly live wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution to assist in bringing about “the commission by any person of any immoral act with another person” to detain a female against her will in a brothel Windhoek has Municipal Street and Traffic Regulations which prohibit loitering and soliciting. In case law it has been established that a prostitute working on her own in a house is not keeping a brothel, and that living on the earnings of prostitution does not apply to the prostitute themselves. Public order offences are also used against sex workers. Legalisation discussion A number of prominent groups have called for the legalization or decriminalization of prostitution. In 2008, the Legal Assistance Centre, a Windhoek-based non-profit human rights organisation, called for the decriminalization of prostitution as a means of cutting the country's high HIV-AIDS rate as well as a means for maintaining the human rights of the prostitute themselves. Rights not Rescue, a sex workers organisation is amongst those calling for decriminalisation. Many groups in Namibia actively oppose legalization and instead focus on providing skills to former