Sex workers around the world face diverse challenges: stigma, discrimination, violence – including state violence – harassment, criminalisation, isolation, marginalisation and a lack of adequate health services.
Sadly, few people want to talk about these issues. Moral and religious discussions about whether the buying and selling of sexual services is right or wrong, on the other hand, continue to be fashionable and dominate media coverage. Why are so many people quick to judge sex workers as either victims needing to be rescued or criminals needing to be stopped, but so slow to listen to what we have to say?
All over the world there are laws and policies that seriously affect the lives of sex workers. Laws differ between and within countries, but rarely do these laws put sex workers’ needs and safety first. The Amnesty International policy does exactly that, and so we welcome this decision.
What does Amnesty’s policy mean for us?
Sex workers have been talking about decriminalisation for a long time, so Amnesty International’s decision is neither a destination nor a starting point, but it is certainly another milestone in our journey. Few human rights organisations have taken such a stand for sex workers. We hope more will join them.
Nothing will change immediately – this new policy is not a UN convention that states must implement. We will continue at the local, community, national and international levels to push for recognition of sex workers’ human rights, and we look forward to welcoming Amnesty’s country sections as new allies in this struggle.
Sex workers, sex worker organisations and allies from all over the world came together to support Amnesty’s proposal, signing letters in five out of the six official UN languages. Our global movement is stronger than ever, and with this debate and decision we are more visible than ever. Perhaps in future it will become unacceptable for the media to write an article or host a panel discussion about sex work without including sex worker voices advocating for human rights? (Perhaps, too, it will become unacceptable to publish the words of celebrities who know nothing of the reality of our experiences but feel qualified to preach on our behalf?)
We hope Amnesty’s decision will move the discussion firmly into the sphere of human rights, rather than moral or religious frameworks. We hope it will put the question of decriminalisation at the forefront of these discussions, and help people understand the difference between decriminalisation and regulation/legalisation.
The advantage of decriminalisation is that it means all laws which prevent sex workers from working safely are removed, and sex workers can freely report crimes to the police without incriminating themselves or their clients. Under legalised regimes, there are usually strict regulations about how, when and where sex work can be done including registration cards, zoned areas and medical testing. While there can be significant protections and benefits for those who work inside these rules, in practice most sex workers are unwilling or unable to do so. When sex workers choose to work outside the regulated system they are just as criminalised as in other countries.
Actions speak louder than words. And it is sex workers who, every day, bear the brunt of actions intended to help us but which in reality lead to harm. These include 100% condom use programmes, compulsory medical testing, violent raids on brothels, and the criminalisation of our clients, all of which take power away from sex workers and give it instead to the corrupt and the abusive among police, officials, clients and others.
Why are so many countries quick to consider these unhelpful policies? And yet why are so few countries willing to follow policies that improve the wellbeing of sex workers? Class, morality and conservative religious values are often the unexamined filters through which many people look at sex work. Feminists of the global south have long supported the agency of sex workers; feminists from other places might consider examining the history of the lens they use, and where they stand when looking through it.
The global sex worker movement, of which APNSW (the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers) is part, is a workers’ network; it is not run by or for management. The rights we fight for will be familiar to Guardian readers and to anyone from the global labour movement: the rights to associate and organise, to be protected by the law, to be free from violence and discrimination; the rights to privacy, health, movement and migration, and of course, the right to work and to freely choose the nature of that work.
Many countries around the world make policies that empower police against sex workers. Amnesty International’s policy seeks to empower sex workers. If sex workers can have enabling environments in which to work, the world will not need to spend millions of dollars to improve our health. We can address our social, economic, political and health problems ourselves.
- Kay Thi Win is coordinator for the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers
- This article was amended on 18 August 2015 to clarify the advantages of decriminalisation in the ninth paragraph