As I have previously blogged, a new global UN report on the impact of bad laws on the worldwide response to HIV found that in order to "ensure an effective, sustainable response to HIV that is consistent with human rights obligations," countries must repeal all punitive laws on sex work given that "criminalization, in collusion with social stigma makes sex workers' lives more unstable, less safe and far riskier in terms of HIV." The Global Commission on HIV and the Law report calls instead for sex work to be treated as work, and sex workers and their clients to be given proper and effective access to HIV and broader health services.
Sex work continues to be criminalized and highly stigmatized across most of the world, resulting in many of those who sell sex experiencing serious human rights abuses, often at the hands of police. A sex worker from Guyana after describing to the Commission how they were beaten and robbed by a client asked the striking question, "How could I go the police and make a report when sex work is not really legal?"
When the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) established the Commission two years ago, it was tasked with providing evidence-based recommendations on the relationship between HIV and the law, with a focus on what impact punitive laws in relation to certain populations have on their vulnerability to the virus. In reaching its landmark conclusion on the need to rethink and reframe the way in which countries treat those who sell and buy sex, the Commission looked at an extensive range of public health and legal evidence. Though, most importantly, through the Regional Dialogue process the Commission heard directly from sex workers from across the world about the way in which laws on the books and laws on the street enable systemic abuse from police, clients, and others, inhibit their ability to negotiate safe sex, and restrict their ability to access the health and social services that they need.
The lived experience of sex workers is reflected in the bold and comprehensive recommendations that the Commission makes to governments in their final report. These include:
- Repealing all laws that prohibit adult, consensual sex work, ensuring that general civil and administrative offences are not used to punish sex workers and enacting laws that ensure safe working conditions for sex workers;
- Taking all measures to stop police harassment and violence against sex workers;
- Prohibiting mandatory testing of sex workers;
- Clearly distinguishing, in law and in practice, between instances of trafficking and child sexual exploitation, and consensual adult sex work;
- Closing all compulsory detention or rehabilitation centers for sex workers (as Vietnam committed to doing recently);
- Repealing punitive conditions for development assistance, such as those contained within the U.S. government's PEPFAR anti-prostitution pledge and its current anti-trafficking regulations; and
- In line with these recommendations, review and reform relevant international laws such as the UN Protocol on Trafficking.
As one participant at the launch of the Commission report in New York commented, having strong recommendations is the first and easiest part. The challenge lies in how sex workers and their allies can use this report as a tool to convince legislators and policymakers that decriminalizing sex work is the best action they can take in responding to HIV while at the same time recognizing and protecting human rights.
2 Comments
Any country that hasnt legalized sex work hasn`t the slightest respect or understanding of basic human rights. Laws prohibiting sex trade are specificaly aimed at controlling and abusing womans human rights. Laws prohibiting sex trade are simply and act of extreme cowardice.
Sex Trafficking Sex Slavery is used by many groups as a attempt to outlaw all prostitution around the world by saying that all women are victims even if they do it willing. This hurts any real victims because it labels all sex workers as victims.
This is done by the media, aid groups, NGO’s, feminists, politicians, and religious organizations that receive funds from the government. There are very strong groups who promote that all adult women who have sex are victims even if they are willing, enjoy it and go out of there way to get it. These groups try to get the public to believe that no adult women in their right mind would ever go into the sex business unless she was forced to do so, weather she knew it or not. They say that 100% of all sex workers are trafficking victims.
They do this in order to label all men as sex offenders and wipe out all consensual prostitution. Which is what their real goal is. There is almost no one who challenges or questions them about their false beliefs. Therefore, the only voices you hear are of these extreme groups. These groups want to label all men as terrible sex offenders for seeing a willing adult woman. No one stands up to say this is foolish, the passive public says nothing.
These groups even say that all men who marry foreign women are terrible sex predators who take advantage of these "helpless foreign women wives".
These groups believe that two adults having consensual sex in private should be outlawed. Since they believe that it is impossible for a man to have sex with a woman without abusing the woman in the process.
Prostitutes are not forced they do the work of their own free will.
Sex trafficking is illegal and the penalties are very severe. It is very difficult to force someone to be a prostitute, they would have to have 24 hour guards posted and be watched 365 days a year, 24 hours per day. Have the threat of violence if they refused, and have no one notice and complain to the authorities or police. They would need to hide from the general public yet still manage to see customers from the general public and not have the customers turn the traffickers in to the police. They would need to provide them with medical care, food, shelter, and have all their basic needs met. They would need to have the sex slaves put on a fake front that they enjoyed what they were doing, act flirtatious and do their job well. They would have to deal with the authorities looking for the missing women, and hide any money they may make, since it comes from illegal activity. They must do all of this while constantly trying to prevent the sex slaves from escaping and reporting them to the police. They would need to prevent the general public from reporting them into the police. This is extremely difficult to do, which makes this activity rare. These criminals would be breaking dozens of major laws not just one. Kidnapping itself is a serious crime. There are many laws against sex trafficking, sex slavery, kidnapping, sex abuse, rape, sexual harassment etc. If someone is behind it, they will be breaking many serious laws, be in big trouble, and will go to jail for many long years. And do you actually think that there is a long line of people who want to have a career as a sex slave kidnapping pimp?
Here are some good websites about sex trafficking:
http://bebopper76.wordpress.com
http://sextraffickingtruths.blogspot.com/
http://www.villagevoice.com/sex-trafficking/
http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/thread...cking_hype.htm
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