SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has formally
expressed concerns about the use by the police of the Vagrants Ordinance to arbitrarily
arrest sex workers. The Committee urged the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that the
police refrain from use of the Vagrants Ordinance to arrest sex workers on the street. 272
There are press reports of police raids of venues used as brothels conducted in 2009, 2010
and 2011 in Colombo, resulting in the arrest of sex workers. 273 In the 2009 case, seven
sex workers were detained pending their court date and were required by court order to
undergo tests for sexually transmitted infections. There are also reports of raids conducted
by immigration authorities resulting in deportation of migrant sex workers. 274
A study of the interactions of transgender sex workers with police found that they
experience victimization by police targeting their feminine gender expression and
sexuality. These abuses include verbal, physical, and sexual abuse as well as inequality in
responses of police to complaints. 275
There is one House of Detention for women in Sri Lanka (Methsevena) where sex workers
arrested under the Vagrants Ordinance may be legally detained as an alternative to prison.
The managers of Methsevena have been criticized by the Human Rights Commission of
Sri Lanka for violating the human rights of women. 276 In 2004, the Methsevena House of
Detention included a rehabilitation centre, a vocational training school, a spice packing
industry and a garment factory. The Human Rights Commission’s 2004 review found
that many women at Methsevena were serving time in detention that was longer than
the specified sentences or in some cases without a release date. The law requires adult
women detainees to be released with the permission of a guardian. Methsevena houses
approximately 300 women. The Human Rights Commission review recommended that
magistrates be required to specify a release date upon sentencing, and that houses of
detention be prohibited from detaining adult women simply because they have no
guardian. As at April 2011, these recommendations had not been implemented. 277
4.8.3 Efforts to improve the legal environment
UNFPA is supporting the National STD and AIDS Control programme to do a series
of training-of-trainer workshops with the police aimed at reducing the arbitrary arrest
of street-based sex workers for condom possession. This series of workshops are for
police attached to police training academies and other police personnel responsible for
training. A curriculum has been developed and includes short video clips, presentations
272 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2011), Concluding observations, Fortyeighth
session 17 January - 4 February 2011. CEDAW/C/LKA/CO/7.
273 Super brothel raided in Sri Lanka, Colombo Page, 5 December 2010; Brothel raid nets popular actress, The
Nation on Sunday, 30 August 2010; A brothel under guise of Spa raided, Lankapuvath 21 May 2011.
274 E-sex bust: Sri Lanka shuts down pioneer e-commerce sex service Lanka Business online, 23 April 2006.
275 Nichols A., (2010) Dance Ponnaya, Dance! Police Abuses Against Transgender Sex Workers in Sri Lanka,
Feminist Criminology 5, p.195-222. See also: Miller J. (2002) Violence and Coercion in Sri Lanka’s Commercial Sex
Industry: Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, Culture and the Law Violence Against Women 8(9): 1045-1074; Miller
J., Jayasundara D., Dayawansa D., (2000) Violence Against Sex Workers in Sri Lanka: Causes, Consequences and
Remedies. ICES Lecture Series Address. Sri Lanka: International Centre for Ethnic Studies.
276 Monitoring and Review Division, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (2004) Human Rights Report:
Methsevena State House of Detention, Gangodawila. Colombo: Human Rights Commission.
277 Thiyagarajah J. (2011), Vagrance (sic), brothels, prostitution and laws against the poor. The Daily Mirror.
7 April 2011; and see similarly: http://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/172-opinion/20145-law-and-gurus-of-sleep.
html
88