SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

It is essential that efforts are made to build supportive environments which ensure
that HIV-prevention efforts are successful. This requires closer collaboration between
public health and public security departments.
A comprehensive package of services should be defined and promoted. Scalingup
of effective prevention among low-income street-based sex workers should be
prioritized.
Mainland East Asia China
Opinion leaders and the media have an important role to play in challenging social
norms that perpetuate stigma and discrimination.
The China Sex Worker Organization Network Forum (CSWONF) was established in
2009, bringing together nine organizations working with female sex workers and three
organizations with male sex workers in a national network. Shanghai Leyi is an NGO that
advocates for the rights of male sex workers in Shanghai. In Yunnan Province, NGOs that
advocate for sex worker rights include Yunnan Parallel (which works with male sex workers
in Kunming) and Phoenix (which works with female sex workers in Gejiu city).
Sex workers in southern China have formed sex-worker organizations, linked to NGOs
based in Hong Kong SAR such as JJJ Association, Zi Teng and Action for Reach Out. 317
These NGOs have conducted needs analyses with Chinese sex workers, and engage in
advocacy for law and policy reform.
In 2010 the international NGO Asia Catalyst identified sexual violence, mandatory urine
testing of people suspected of drug use and access to government services under the
hukou registration system 318 as the most urgent legal issues for sex workers. 319 Asia
Catalyst and local partners argue that laws should be revised with removal of provisions
that punish sex workers and removal of criminal transmission of STIs.
Korekata AIDS Law Center has conducted legal and advocacy training of sex workers in
Yunnan province.
Beijing AIZHIXING Institute is a Chinese human rights NGO that advocates for sex work
law reform. In 2010, the Institute was planning to hold a Sex Worker Rights and Health
Workshop. Police ordered the workshop to be cancelled and issued an order to the media
that prohibited any reporting of the workshop. 320
A police crackdown that involved public humiliation of sex workers prompted a public
demonstration in Wuhan, Hubei Province, calling for the legalization of sex work in 2010.
It is thought to have been the first of its kind in China. The protest organizer was detained
briefly. 321
317 Zi Teng (2008) Sex work: Commentary Sex Transm Infect 84(1):36.
318 Hukou is a household registration record that officially identifies a person as a resident of an area.
319 Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit (2010) Sex Work Legislation: Solution or Problem? Report of the Satellite
Session at the XVIII International AIDS Conference Vienna, Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, p.3.
320 See: World Care Council (2010), Come to the Aid of Beijing AIZHXING Institute 14 July 2010, available at:
http://www.worldcarecouncil.org/content/come-aid-beijing-aizhxing-institute.
321 Branigan T. (2010) Chinese sex workers protest against crackdown The Guardian 3 August 2010.
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