By Cheryl Overs & Ntokozo Yingwana
You may have seen the Twitter storm that surrounded the recent Amnesty International bi-annual International Council Meeting in Dublin last week, where delegates discussed a range of issues and, among other things, adopted a resolution that calls for the decriminalisation of sex work.
Amnesty’s decision was informed by research findings on the impact of the criminalisation of sex work and a 2014 consultation that included sex workers from around the world. It does not argue that “Prostitution is a human right,” but rather that sex work laws should be removed because they drive human rights abuses and prevent the tools that control exploitation, health risks and abuse in other industries from being applied in the sex industry (such as labour regulations).
Certainly newspapers like The Guardian seemed interested in the proceedings and ran several, sometimes contradictory and incoherent, articles. Strangely, one of the pieces it ran–which questioned whether Amnesty had been “hijacked by proponents of the global sex trade”–appeared in the Sustainable Business section of the paper.
A tangled web of advocacy
Leading up to the meeting, Amnesty released a Draft Policy on Sex Work, to which the Coalition Against Trafficking Women (CATW) responded with an open letter and an online petition “urging Amnesty International not to adopt any policy that supports the full decriminalisation of the sex industry.” CATW argued that sex work is a form of sexual exploitation specifically targeted at poor women, and called instead for criminalisation to be extended to sex workers’ clients.
Prominent supporters of CATW’s petition included celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Emily Blunt, Lena Dunham and Anne Hathaway.
But sex workers, along with a league of distinguished women’s organisations, global health agencies and human rights groups, were quick to respond to the petition, by pointing to evidence that legal reform is needed to protect sex workers from exploitation and violence, reduce HIV and progress toward development goals. A rival petition initiated by the Global Network of Sex Work Projects gathered over 10,000 supporters, several thousand more than CATW.
When celebrity endorsements go wrong
In response to CATW’s celebrity advocates, hundreds of sex worker activists took to traditional and social media to demonstrate their resentment at being told how to feel and act by rich and powerful Hollywood actors who claim to know what’s best for them.
Decriminalisation is a good thing
Whilst the new Amnesty policy is a good thing, it does not, as some poorly informed commentators seem to imply, mean that every (or any) country will decriminalise the sex industry any time soon.
A 2011 report from the African Sex Workers Alliance documented human right violations experienced by sex workers (female, male and transgender) in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, as well as the barriers sex workers face in accessing health and legal services. Discrimination against and exclusion of sex workers from community-based development initiatives, burial schemes and money-lending projects were also reported.
In our experience, sex workers in Africa and other low-income settings acknowledge the abuse and violence often experienced in the industry. However, they’re quick to point out that it is not sex work per se that renders them vulnerable, but rather the stigma, lack of legal protection and exclusion from education, housing, healthcare and financial services that result from its criminalisation. Ironically, another thing that flows from the criminalised status of sex work is that leaving the occupation is much more difficult than it could be.
Decriminalisation in poor countries: A gateway to dignity and justice
The benefits of removing laws against buying and selling sex and organising commercial sex are clearest where the rule of law is the strongest, such as in New Zealand, where the police, courts and other institutions (pretty much) have adequate resources and follow the law, which is applied (more or less) equally and rapidly to everyone. The results there are reduced violence, human trafficking and improved health outcomes for sex workers.
However, sex work should also be decriminalised in countries with weak rule of law, even though the routes to justice enabled by decriminalisation will inevitably be different than in countries like New Zealand.
In many, maybe most, African countries there are laws against selling sex and operating sex businesses, but they are barely enforced because resources are limited or it’s not a policy priority. This doesn’t mean sex work is allowed. Rather, police use lesser charges such as vagrancy and public nuisance laws (for example Rogue and Vagabond legislation) to arrest sex workers, detain them for short periods and impose “fines” (often bribes).
Even where there are few police officers, the law sends and sustains a powerful message to the whole community that sex workers do not enjoy the legal status of other citizens and will not be protected by law.
Although it’s unlikely that removing laws against sex work would change all of that immediately, there is much to be excited about in the decriminalisation of sex work in low-income countries. Police could be held accountable; hate crimes, trafficking and child exploitation could be more effectively identified and prosecuted; and perhaps most importantly, without laws against operating sex businesses, sex workers could access safe and legal places to work.
By adding its voice to calls for decriminalisation of sex work, Amnesty has taken an important stance that has been applauded by several sex work networks, including the African Sex Worker Alliance, which said:
“Sex workers face unique challenges brought about by legislations, stigma and violence and with this vote, we hope that the human rights movement, regionally and globally, will advocate for the rights of sex workers, recognize sex work as work and oppose all forms of discrimination against them.”
– See more at: http://www.whydev.org/prostitution-is-a-human-right-said-nobody-ever/#sthash.iK1kOPsU.dpuf
