Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court has said it is now illegal to arrest women on charges of soliciting for sex in the absence of confirmation from men that they were offered the services for a fee.

The court which gave the ruling on Wednesday after receiving an application by nine women who were contesting their arrest said the new law takes immediate effect.

The women were arrested in Harare in March 2014 during an operation by police code-named “No to Robberies and Prostitution.”

The court said their arrest and prosecution was unconstitutional.

Women rights activists had over the years clamored for enabling laws that would protect women, including sex workers, from gender discrimination associated with the police operations aimed at eradicating prostitution especially in the capital, Harare.

The activists allege that in most cases women arrested based on suspicion of being sex workers were actually innocent of the crime.

They said that most women arrested and charged with loitering for the purposes of prostitution are wrongly profiled especially when they wear skimpy attires