sexual health and human rights in the african region - The ICHRP

8 SEX WORK
8.1 Introduction
[1] The offering of sex for reward and activities surrounding sex work are generally
criminalized in African countries. From a public health perspective,
criminalization of sex work is not conducive to putting sex workers within the
reach of strategies to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Fear
of arrest, prosecution and imprisonment deters sex workers from accessing
health care services. The police practices of using possession of condoms as
evidence to support criminal charges in relation to sex work, is a deterrent
against using condoms in sex work and renders sex work a high risk activity and
a bridgehead for transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections
to the community.
In the era of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the African region especially,
criminalization of sex work and the attendant stigmatization of sex workers
undermines HIV/AIDS policy that are built around mobilizing communities and
individuals, including sex workers, to becoming active participants in checking
the spread of the pandemic, though inter alia, early treatment of sexually
transmitted infections and knowing one’s HIV status. The HIV/AIDS policies of
all countries in the African region expressly acknowledge the vital importance of
preventing the spread of sexually transmitted infection through sex work.
[2] Criminalization of sex work creates opportunities for blackmail and violence,
including rape that may be perpetrated against sex work workers by clients,
pimps, and even law enforcement officers. Crimes perpetrated against workers
are unlikely to be reported by the victims to law enforcement agencies for fear of
secondary victimization.
[3] From a human rights perspective, criminalization of sex work implicates several
human rights violations, but mostly, the rights to health, self-determination,
human dignity, privacy and equality. Criminalization of sex work that results in
deterring sex workers from taking measures to render sex safer through using
condoms as well as coming forward for treatment for sexually transmitted
infections and voluntary counseling and testing for HIV detracts from the duty
of the state to fulfil the right to health. Preventing a person from taking up sex
work is prima facie an infringement of their right to liberty and selfdetermination.
Of course, the state has a compelling interest in regulating sex
work in order to ensure that it is carried out in a manner that does not pose a
significant risk to sex workers and the public. However, criminal regulations that
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