STOP – feminist violence against sex workers

By Leena Neena

“ The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) has been for years delivering a clear political statement committed to work towards a Europe free from prostitution, by supporting key abolitionist principles which state that the prostitution of women and girls constitutes a fundamental violation of women’s human rights, a serious form of male violence against women, and a key obstacle to gender equality in our societies. The EWL Centre on violence against women is now working on an EWL campaign to deliver a strong message towards a Europe free from prostitution.”

It is beyond belief that this kind of campaign can take place in this day and age. How do these people feel when they sit around deciding to do things like this without speaking to sex workers ?  No sex worker, no matter how they  came to the sex industry,   could mistake what this fist means. It means violence. No doubt the euro  feminists fantasise about the punch they are recommending landing on bad men – the fantasy pimps of their imagination –  and helping innocent girl victims who also live in their imaginations. But every sex worker knows that every  punch lands  on her /him no matter what fantasies are in the heads  of the punch throwers.

That this is a group that says it opposes violence is a joke.  These middle class  women who think they know better than us should be made to take responsibility for the violence they advocate. This campaign is what the Americans call ‘ hate speech’  But who will stop it ? Who can raise a voice in the face of the millions of dollars and euros driving violence against sex workers all over the world.

Read anti trafficking superstar Leela Neena’s blog at  http://thisisleelaneena.tumblr.com/

Sex Tourism and Trafficking

By Megan Rivers-Moore

(This is one of a series of weekly columns from Guyanese in the diaspora and others with an interest in issues related to Guyana and the Caribbean)

… [D]iscussion of trafficking, a much talked about but often poorly understood topic, is at the forefront of concerns about migration, labour, and sexuality. A key problem in so many discussions of trafficking was reproduced in an October 15th article in the Stabroek News, titled ‘Sex tourism growing in favoured destinations in Caribbean’, namely, that sex tourism and trafficking are conflated, as if they were one and the same. The Organisation of American States (OAS) co-ordinator of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Unit in the Department of Public Security, Fernando Garcia-Robles, reportedly noted that several tourist destination countries in the Caribbean have a growing sex tourism industry, and acknowledged “concerns that the Free Movement of Skilled Nationals in Caricom could result in increased human trafficking.”

Tourists travel to the Caribbean for many reasons, including in search of sexual experiences with local people, sometimes explicitly commercial, sometimes a much more ambiguous exchange of gifts, affection, and sex. This complex phenomenon is made possible by a variety of factors, including tourism dependent economies, global inequalities of wealth and mobility, and problematic ideas about the race and sexuality of people in the Caribbean. Sex tourism is not, however, the same as trafficking. Trafficking refers to the use of violence, coercion and exploitation to recruit and transport workers across borders to carry out various kinds of work. Most crucially, trafficking does not just include sex work, but rather all kinds of labour, including domestic and agricultural, for example. Yet trafficking is often simplistically equated with commercial sex and sexual ‘slavery.’

The use of the term ‘slavery’ so loosely should give us pause, as it is a concept fraught with history and emotion, especially in the Caribbean and Latin America, where it calls to mind the brutalities of the middle passage, plantation economies, and the outright ownership of human beings. In fact, the little reliable research that has been done suggests that trafficking more often resembles debt bondage, and unfair and exploitative contact labour. There is of course a long history of these kinds of labour practices in the Caribbean as well, but this is an important distinction in terms of how this work takes place within labour markets and their relationships to the global economy. As last week’s article attests, men, women, boys and girls are all trafficked for many ends to, through, and from the Caribbean region and around the world.

Significant numbers of women are indeed coerced into the sex industry, but the conditions of their lives are similar in many ways to the lives of other migrant women who struggle to get by in a world where racialized and gendered inequalities help to structure a lack of viable options and opportunities. Because of the ways in which trafficking is often mistakenly assumed to mean sexual slavery across border, it is crucial to acknowledge that not all migrant sex workers are trafficking victims. Sex work is often one of many strategies that women engage in for economic survival and advancement. Because few countries classify sex work as work, women tend to migrate in other immigration categories (for example, on tourist or domestic work visas) and then make their way into the sex industry. Others pay smugglers, often agreeing to or finding themselves in situations of debt bondage or indentureship. One of the consequences of seeing migrant women who work in the sex industry as trafficking victims is that concerns about trafficking can be used for immigration control. By conflating trafficking with sexual slavery, women can be ‘saved’ by deporting them. This allows governments to appear benevolent, it deals with xenophobic fears about immigration, but it also conveniently ignores the massive violations of the human and labour rights of sex workers that take place with impunity throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. One wonders, then, about the wisdom of the OAS focusing on strengthening the capacity of law enforcement officials, immigration officers, judges, and prosecutors.

The relationship between sex workers and police has been notoriously difficult in much of the world, and indeed, a great deal of the violence that sex workers face comes from the state. Because of their experiences with state violence, sex workers are not likely to report abuse from clients or management, and most importantly in terms of trafficking, sex workers’ are cautious about voicing their concerns about the use of force or coercion against migrants in the sex industry. This is especially the case when migrant sex workers face deportation upon discovery. These women are unlikely to testify against those who transport undocumented workers, as many trafficking victims who have been ‘saved’ go on to use these same networks in order to cross borders undetected once again. We must pay attention to the broader conditions that make men, women and children vulnerable to smuggling, deception, and coercion in migrating, including the ever increasing demand for cheap, exploitable labour and the dire economic contexts that make precarious and dangerous choices for survival attractive or unavoidable. By defining sex work as a form of labour, alongside other kinds of labour like domestic and agricultural work in which workers potentially face unjust and unsafe working conditions, we can begin to explore ways of addressing these issues without resorting to fear mongering, alarmist and largely unsubstantiated claims about sexual slavery.

Pattaya Draft Declaration on Sex Work in Asia and the Pacific 2010

Pattaya Draft Declaration on Sex Work in Asia and the Pacific 2010

This Declaration has been agreed by sex workers representing regional, national and local networks of sex workers present at Pattaya Thailand 12-16 October 2010.  APNSW will be conducting a consultation to finalise this document.

It represents a unified and rights based approach to the reduction of HIV among adult sex workers.

Preamble

Recognising that:

Sex workers of all genders are subject to violence, both in their personal lives and at work. This violence is a manifestation of stigma, discrimination and judgemental attitudes.

International and national trafficking law and policy has resulted in increased violence against and oppression of sex workers.

United Nations organisations and specialised agencies have previously agreed that criminal and other laws that lead to dangerous settings for commercial  sex and limit access to services must be repealed.

In many parts of the world, sex workers are amongst the most vulnerable to HIV and STIs.

Twenty years of experience has shown that effective HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for sex workers is possible only with their meaningful and active involvement.

Collective organising and community mobilisationand community led processes are key to ensuring that sex workers benefit from HIV policies and programmes.

Building capacity within sex worker networks and communities must be understood as part of the commitment to the respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of sex workers.

Sex workers who are socially included, have better economic and social status and are less vulnerable to human rights abuses and HIV.

It is necessary to provide and scale up access to rights based HIV programming for sex workers and their clients of all genders, HIV positive or negative.

Successful rights based interventions that have been shown to reduce HIV and STIs among female, male and transgender sex workers and clients must be strengthened and scaled up.

Coercive efforts to control or reduce sex work are contrary to human rights. Mandatory medical treatment or procedures, raids, forced rehabilitation, or programmes implemented by police or based upon detention of sex workers are all examples of coercive programming and in some circumstances may constitute torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

To be effective, HIV programming needs to be devised in true partnership with sex workers, and be dynamic, participatory, non-coercive and must address the diverse realities of human sexuality and sexual expression.

Article 1 Responsibilities of States

1(a)       The human rights protection provided to those who are recognised as persons before the law is often unavailable to sex workers. States must address these failings and respect, protect and fulfil the rights of all people including sex workers.

1(b)       States must recognise and regulate sex work as a form of labour (work).

1(c)       Human rights are central to the response to HIV in any population.  A rights based response requires that rights are not denied because a person is a sex worker,  a client of a sex worker or is otherwise financially or personally related to a sex worker. This specifically includes the children of sex workers.

1(d)       The procedural aspects of a rights-based approach which include participation, accountability and transparency are central to working with sex workers. The starting point for a rights based approach to HIV and sex work is the formation of a partnership in which sex workers’ contributions to policy and programme development is encouraged, supported, recognised and valued. This cannot occur in coercive environments such as those created by the 100% Condom Use Programme or where sex work is governed by laws that address trafficking.

1(e)       Laws and policies must not directly or indirectly limit the rights of sex workers, or restrict their access to comprehensive HIV and SRH services.

Article 2 Support and Capacity Building

2(a)       Sex workers must have free and meaningful participation in the research, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes that affect their lives.

2(b)       Capacity building includes the provision of adequate funding and training for sex worker groups and networks to build organisational strength and expertise to effectively operate and to communicate and share good practices with each other and to external bodies.

Article 3 Respectful Attitudes and Behaviour

3(a)       Policies and programmes must be implemented that foster respectful attitudes and behaviour by officers and practitioners  in law enforcement, health services, religious institutions, judicial and government sectors, civil society organizations and the public.

3(b)       Officers, practitioners and others, including clients, who discriminate against sex workers or violate their rights or dignity must be subject to penalties responses that are in proportion to the act in question and remedies made available to sex workers.

Article 4 Advocacy

4(a)       Sex worker organisations and networks must be supported and sufficiently resourced to address the discrimination, stigma, violence, and injustices experienced by sex workers.

4(b)       Sex worker organisations must be supported and sufficiently resourced to  develop coalitions with others to address discrimination, stigma, violence, and injustices experienced by sex workers.

4(c)       Peer education and peer support networks must be regarded as a key means to promote the rights of sex workers and to reduce risk behaviours among sex workers.

Article 5 Strategic partnerships

5(a)       Governments, labour organizations, religious institutions, the private sector, civil society organisations and local communities in association with sex worker groups,  must address the risks associated with HIV and sex work, especially the elimination of violence against sex workers.

5(b)       Governments, labour organizations, religious instiutions, the private sector, civil society organisations and local communities in association with sex worker groups must address barriers to sex workers organizing, improving health and safety within sex work settings and accessing HIV prevention and other health and social care services.

Article 6 Migrant Sex Workers

Special attention must be paid to meeting the needs of migrant sex workers, including those who may be refugees, internally displaced and undocumented persons.

Article 7 Ethnic and Religious Minorities

Special attention must be paid to meeting the needs of sex workers belonging to ethnic and religious minorities.

Article 8 Elimination of violence against sex workers

8(a)       Sex workers must be able to safely report violence and abuse, and receive protection under law.

8(b)       Violence is linked with increased incidence of STIs and HIV. Programmes must be developed to prevent and minimise violence and its effects.

8(c)       Safe spaces, such as drop-in centres, and community-based and cultural activities must be available to sex workers.

Article 9 Sex Workers and Clients

9(a)       Specific campaigns must be developed and targeted at clients to:

• encourage clients to behave respectfully and responsibly towards sex workers, and
• deliver messages about health, safer sex, and condom usage.

9(b)       HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programmes and services must be provided to clients, and others associated with the sex industry.

9(c)       Funding for campaigns and programmes for clients must be derived from funding streams other than those intended for policy development and programmes for sex workers.

Article 10 Provision of Services

10(a)     Sex workers must have access to respectful, adequate and culturally-relevant legal and health services.

10(b)     Health services include but are not limited to:

• sexual and reproductive health services,
• a continuum of HIV prevention options such as information and education,
• voluntary counselling and testing,
• support for community mobilization,
• prevention commodities, and
• drug and alcohol harm reduction programmes.

10(c)     For programming to be effective, barriers to providing services must be addressed, including discrimination by and stigmatising treatment from health care services, social services, legal services and law enforcement agencies.

10 (d)    HIV programmes must be neither mandatory nor coercive. The participation of sex workers must be voluntary and informed.

Article 11 Expand economic and social opportunities for sex workers

11(a)     Sex workers must have access to programmes that expand economic and social opportunities. In this regard training must be provided for sex workers who remain in sex work, and those seeking an economic alternative to sex work.

11(b)     Strategies designed to provide sustainable supplementary incomes for individuals and households must address at a minimum:

• lack of secure housing,
• lack of access to education,
• banking services and credit, and
• control of family assets

Article 12  Accurate Data

Accurate data obtained ethically and in partnership with sex workers, using sound research methods are required ar national and local levels concerning, but not limited to:

• sex work settings,
• mobility and migration trends,
• patterns of violence,
• good practice examples of HIV treatment, care and support for sex workers,
• barriers to access to existing services,
• design of sex worker friendly services,
• microfinance, income-generating activities, supplementary and alternative livelihoods, and business start up opportunities, and
• laws, policies, enforcement processes and their impact on vulnerability.

Article 13 Sex Workers Living with HIV

13 (a)    Sex workers living with HIV must have access to at a minimum the highest available standard of HIV treatment, care and support services in the country.

13(b)     Programmes must provide: quality counselling that addresses issues such as potential discrimination and loss of income, care and treatment for sex workers living with HIV, including antiretroviral therapy, when medically indicated, and treatment of opportunistic infections.

13 (c)    Barriers to service provision, including health professionals and service providers who discriminate against sex workers living with HIV, inadequate access to HIV and sexually transmitted infections testing, counselling and treatment services must be remedied.

13(d)     HIV prevention for and with sex workers living with HIV must not involve coercion.

Article 14 International Law and Policy

14(a)     International trade and aid must not be conditional on national legislative, policy and enforcement responses to trafficking or intellectual property.

14(b)     Access to affordable generic drugs must not be limited by international, bilateral or plurilateral agreements.

14(c)     International law* concerning trafficking and prostitution must be given a limited interpretation and must not be relied upon to support coercive responses to sex workers, or to limit the operation of commericial sex as a form of labour.

14(d)     Funding for HIV programming should not be linked to statements opposing the “legalising” of sex work.

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* Article 6 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Article 35 Convention on the Rights of the Child

Convention Against Transnational Origanized Crime, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children

Consultation on Sex Work and HIV in Asia and the Pacific

The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers and UNFPA are holding a consultation on Sex Work and HIV in the Asia and the Pacific Region in Pattaya Thailand.  On October 10 and 11^th the APNSW held a meeting of its members to prepare for the consultation.

Sex workers from Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Fiji, Papua, New Guinea; Cambodia and China are attending.

On the first day each country reported on human rights, health and law. Although there are some variations in details the same circumstances

• Raids and arrests
• Violence and rape by police
• Unfair practices and exploitation by the people sex workers turn to for protection from arrests and violence.
• Condoms confiscated and used as evidence
• Lack of access to justice
• Lack of mechanisms for challenging violations of rights
• Unfriendly and inappropriate health services persist.

Some messages are being developed. So far they are :

• Lack of access to primary health care.
• Sex work is not trafficking
• Trafficking is not sex work
• Sex work is not for only women

Several sex workers are presenting at the consultation over the next couple of days.  Each afternoon sex workers will meet in country groups with the delegates from  their country.

Rantsev v Cyprus and Russia : can a sensible judgement stem the trafficking hysteria ?

On 7 January 2010, in an historic first judgment concerning cross border human trafficking in Europe, the European Court of Human Rights has found that Cyprus and Russia committed a number of human rights violations. In a judgment which confirmed the obvious -  that trafficking cannot be considered compatible with the values of the European Convention on Human Rights, or with a democratic society – the Court  further clarified states’ obligations to protect against, as well as to investigate, trafficking. It is an important judgement because it links trafficking to the human rights that are aimed at preventing violence and forced labour, not at those ‘human rights’ that aim to protect women from the indignity of selling sex ( sexual exploitation as defined by CEDAW). In other words, it targets the violence not the sex work.

The case concerns the death of a twenty year old Russian  sex worker Oxana Rantseva in Cyprus where she had arrived under the “artiste” visa scheme. She was working in a cabaret in the island’s largest coastal resort, Limassol. Ms Rantseva was found dead below the balcony of an apartment belonging to an employee of the cabaret, having been taken there from a police station by the cabaret’s owner. The police found a bedspread tied to the railing of the balcony on the upper floor of the apartment. An inquest in Cyprus found she had died as a result of injuries sustained when she jumped from the balcony. In describing the nature of human trafficking the judgment states that, “by its very nature and aim of exploitation [human trafficking] is based on the exercise of powers attaching to the right of ownership. It treats human beings as commodities to be bought and sold and put to forced labour, often for little or no payment, usually in the sex industry but also elsewhere…It implies close surveillance of the activities of victims, whose movements are often circumscribed… It involves the use of violence and threats against victims, who live and work under poor conditions.

Noting that, as a relatively modern phenomenon, human trafficking is not mentioned in the 1950 European Convention, the Court found that it nevertheless fell within the scope of Article 4 of the Convention (prohibiting slavery, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour). The Court elaborated on the positive obligations of states in the context of Article 4 with respect to trafficking, holding that there is a positive obligation on states to adopt appropriate and effective legal and administrative frameworks, to take protective measures, and to investigate trafficking where it has already occurred. The Court described as “indisputable” that the latter obligation involved the need for a full and effective investigation covering all aspects of trafficking allegations, from recruitment to exploitation. The Court noted that these positive obligations applied to the various states potentially involved in human trafficking – states of origin, states of transit and states of destination.

One way forward is to allow migrant women to work on their own as sex workers, if they so wish, with equal rights under the law as Cypriot workers and increased protection because of the risks and vulnerabilities of the sector. But this is unlikely to be permitted, as it is likely to seen by the authorities and the prevailing conservative public opinion as sanction prostitution and migration for the purpose of prostitution. One needs to deal with each component part of ‘trafficking’ as a form of distorted migration hence the question of freedom of movement/ border need to be addressed in the same way as with other irregular or undocumented workers. Regularisation is the only way to deal with ‘irregular migration’ therefore trafficking must be dealt with by abolishing visas that produce/reproduce trafficking (i.e. artistes) visa and regularisation of the work of foreign prostitutes. Monitoring, implementing labour standards and unionising sex workers is crucial.

PS :   The judgement says trafficking is not proscribed in older law because it is a new phenonomenon. But it seems to me that ‘procuring’ became ‘trafficking’ at some point.  What drove this change ? What does it mean? Answers on the back of an envelope.

for more see http://www.interights.org/rantsev  and http://thetrim1.blogspot.com/2010/02/compating-traffficking-in-cyprus.html

Three New Papers About Sex work

Sexual and Reproductive Health http://bit.ly/dDwzyM

Migration, Mobility  http://bit.ly/c3oosI

Creating an Enabling Legal and Policy Environment http://bit.ly/b8Nzxx

Now that sounds familiar…40,000 sex workers on the move…again

Our media monitoring over the last week or so has picked up a steadily increasing number of news stories in which it is claimed that 40,000 sex workers will descend on South Africa in response to the increased demand for sexual services from football fans enjoying the World Cup. But where does this figure come from and what does it mean for sex work policy? 

Matt Greenall has picked up this issue on his blog  and, with his permission, I have posted it below. 

40,000 new sex workers for the South Africa world cup? Really? Anatomy of a number

David Bayever of South Africa’s Central Drug Authority’s announcement that the World Cup in South Africa would lead to 40,000 foreign sex workers being brought to South Africa (“many… from Eastern Europe”) has received blanket coverage in the press (http://tinyurl.com/ygpz8wp; http://tinyurl.com/ya35p3k; http://tinyurl.com/yfwfluh).  The only hint of a source for this very high figure is the “event organisers” (in the Telegraph article). 

But it looks like this particular figure wasn’t made up on the hoof by anyone in South Africa.  Try googling “40,000, world cup, prostitute, germany” and you’ll see that exactly the same figure was being given in the run up to the Germany World Cup in 2006 (http://bit.ly/clc6dN; http://bit.ly/c44hgv;  http://bit.ly/aLuhoM), amid accusations that the German government, having legalised prostitution in 2002, was facilitating trafficking and coercion. 

Website launched on International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

Today is International Day to End Violence against Sex Workers. The Paulo Longo Research Initiative (PLRI) marks this important day with the launch of its new website, www.plri.org.

The PLRI website is a substantial library of resources about sex work in the context of economics, law, health, gender and sexuality, and migration. As it grows the site will increasingly showcase important research findings, host discussions among academics and sex workers and provide text and video news about relevant events and publications. The site will provide health service providers, policy makers, social workers, human rights advocates and students invaluable opportunities to learn about issues that affect sex workers.

December 17 provides an opportunity to reflect on why research is needed to provide evidence to guide measures to protect sex workers from violence and exploitation.  Sex workers from all over the world have long argued that criminal laws against sex work render them vulnerable to abuses, including unprotected sex and lack of access to services and justice. But many countries continue to criminalise sex workers and sex worker organisations everywhere receive frequent reports of violence.

Sex workers all over the world are subject to violence, exploitation and abuse.  For example:

• USAID research conducted in 2006 in Cambodia found that of the female and transgender sex workers surveyed approximately half were beaten by police; about a third gang-raped by police and about three-quarters were gang-raped by other men during the past year.

• In Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa Jane Arnott and Anna Louise Crago found that repeated violence, extortion and detention by law enforcement officers leave sex workers feeling constantly under threat in a climate of impunity that fosters further violence and discrimination against sex workers from the community-at-large. Migrants and transgender sex workers are particularly affected.

• In Pakistan research into sexually transmitted infections by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that HIV services need to be tied in with efforts to reduce discrimination, exploitation and violence against sex workers if they are going to be effective. This includes support programmes designed to increase sex workers’ abilities to defend their own human rights.

The World Health Organisation has recognised clear links between violence and sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV and recently both Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary-General, and Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, have recommended that laws that punish sex workers be repealed in the light of evidence that they increase HIV vulnerability.

On December 17 sex worker organisations in dozens of countries demand an end to violence. Browse the PLRI website to read about the nature and causes of violence against male, female and transgender sex workers and the successes and failures of efforts to reduce it. Help to promote the site by circulating the press release to your contacts.

Latin American Dialogue on Sexuality and Geopolitics

Between August 24th and 26th, 2009, the Latin American Dialogue on Sexuality and Geopolitics took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Organized by Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) in partnership with the Latin-American Center on Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM), the meeting gathered close to 50 participants from nine countries — academics, researchers and activists — who debated the conditions of sexual politics in the region.

The session Sexuality and Economics: visibilities and invisibilities featured:

• Lucila Esquivel, coordinator of the Paraguayan Association of Sex Workers 
• Ofélia Becerril, professor at the Colégio de Michoacán, in México;
• Adriana Piscitelli, professor and researcher at the Núcleo de Estudos de gênero PAGU in UNICAMP (Brazil);
• Maria Elvira Benítez, Anthropology PHD student at the Museu Nacional and program assistant at  the Centro Latino Americano em Sexualidade e Direitos Humanos (CLAM), in Rio de Janeiro; and
• Bruno Zilli, anthropologist and also researcher at CLAM. 

 Many of the papers presented in this session focussed on sex work and the online overview of this session is an interesting read. The overview paper for the session, Prostitution as economic activity in urban Brazil, was written by Ana Paula Silva, professor at the Centro Universitário Augusto Motta (UNISUAM), in Rio de Janeiro, and Thaddeus Blanchette, professor at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) e also at UNISUAM. You can read a summary of their presentation and the comments that followed from it on the Sexuality Policy Watch website.

Conceptual Approaches to Human Trafficking

PLRI will be engaging with the ‘Trafficking Awareness Week’ organised by Students Against Human Trafficking at the University of Sussex. Jo Doezema from the Institute of Development Studies will be speaking in an event entitled Conceptual Approaches to Human Trafficking. This is an open meeting in Room Arts C 233 on Friday, May 8th from 11am – 1pm. Please do feel free to come along.