SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

antibodies. Certification may engender a false sense of security particularly in the clients
of sex workers, who may as a result increase their resistance to condoms.
Since 2010 Fiji has introduced heavier penalties for people associated with the sex
industry. There is some evidence of the harm to HIV responses caused by the enforcement
of these laws.
There is an active debate about sex work law reform in Papua New Guinea (PNG), where
sex work is currently criminalized. PNG has the highest prevalence of HIV in the Pacific,
with some provinces experiencing a generalized epidemic, and concentrated epidemics
among sex workers. For example, a study conducted in 2010 found HIV prevalence of 17.6
percent among a sample of people who sell sex in Port Moresby. 610
New Zealand and the states and territories of Australia have introduced a range of
different legislative models for regulating the sex industry. New Zealand and the state of
New South Wales have models that come closest to full decriminalization. This has been
highly beneficial to both public health outcomes and the human rights of sex workers.
Condom use is high and the prevalence of STIs among sex workers has been kept at low
levels in these jurisdictions. Australia has no documented case of HIV transmission from a
sex worker to a client.
The report of the Independent Commission on AIDS in the Pacific observed: 611
Commercial sex…is most visible and organized in the largest towns and cities
(including at sporting and cultural events) and around rural industries with mobile
male populations (such as mines and logging camps in Papua New Guinea and
Solomon Islands). Foreign sex workers are becoming more numerous in Fiji, where
they also often work in local factories, and in the Marshall Islands.
…Much less visible, but more widespread, is unorganized, transactional sex—
namely sex exchanged for food, clothing or other resources, or for a ‘good time’ or
the attentions of a ‘boyfriend’. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many women and
some men exchange sex for money or gifts in all Pacific countries. Studies in PNG,
particularly, have found some women partly or fully support themselves and their
families by selling sex but do not identify themselves as sex workers.
610 Kelly A., Kupul M., Man W., Nosi S., et al. (2011) 'Askim na save (ask and understand): People who sell and
exchange sex in Port Moresby'. Sydney: University of New South Wales & PNG Institute of Medical Research, p.29.
611 Commission on AIDS in the Pacific (2009) op cit. fn.6., p.39.
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