SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

Solomon
Islands
Vanuatu
The Penal Code provides offences for procuring a
woman or girl to become a prostitute (Section 144);
knowingly living on the earnings of prostitution;
persistently soliciting or importuning for immoral
purposes in a public place; or exercising control,
direction or influence over the movements of
a prostitute in such a manner as to show that
he or she is aiding abetting or compelling her
prostitution with any other person or generally
(Section 153); brothel keeping, or permitting
premises to be used as a brothel or for the purposes
of habitual prostitution; or letting premises to be
used as a brothel (Section 155).
The Penal Code provides offences for procuring,
aiding or facilitating the prostitution of another
person or sharing in the proceeds of prostitution
whether habitual or otherwise, or being subsidised
by any person engaging in prostitution (Section
101); soliciting for immoral purposes in a public
place (Section 148).
Micronesia
Guam Criminal and Correctional Code (Guam Code Title 9),
provides offences for sex work (which criminalize
both the sex worker and the client); soliciting to
engage in sex work; and promoting or abetting
sex work (Chapter 28.10, 28.15, 28.20). Section
28.10 (b)(3): A person convicted of prostitution
who is determined to have known that he or
she was infected with either HIV or AIDS at the
time of the commission of the act is guilty of a
felony of the first degree. Workers in massage
parlors are required to be tested for HIV and STIs
every 3 months and to obtain Health Certificates:
Regulations on Sanitary Operation of Massage Parlors
(1984), Health Certificates (1989), Issuance of Health
Certificates (2001).
Federated
States of
Micronesia
Prostitution is illegal in Chuuk and Pohnpei, but not
in Yap and Kosrae. Chuuk criminalizes clients and
sex workers (Title 12 Cap 28 §9025). ‘Prostitution’
is defined as ‘the act of performing, or offering or
agreeing to perform, a sexual act for hire, either
as a prostitute or as a customer of a prostitute.
Prostitution includes engaging in or agreeing or
offering to engage in sexual conduct with another
person, and engaging in any lewd act between
persons, for money or other consideration, either
as the person paying or the person receiving
the money or other consideration’. In Chuuk and
Pohnpei soliciting and the operation of organized
premises for the purposes of prostitution are
offences. 612
Pacific
612 Jivan V., Forster C., (2007) Translating CEDAW into Law: CEDAW Legislative Compliance in Nine Pacific Island
Countries Suva: UNDP & UNIFEM, p.54.
177