SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

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ii. iii. consultations with sex workers, technical experts and UN agencies; and analysis of all inputs to define findings, conclusions and action points. Sex worker organizations were key partners in the study. The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW) was involved in developing the project methodology, and facilitated processes at the national and regional level for feedback on country chapter drafts. A survey requesting feedback on draft country chapters was disseminated to sex work organizations and other stakeholders. Expert inputs were provided from Australia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Country-level consultation meetings occurred with sex workers in Cambodia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. In addition, representatives from sex work community organizations and sex workers from 12 countries participated in a regional consultation meeting held in Bangkok, 22-23 November 2011 (see Annex II). 4 The consultation meeting was organized by UNDP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with APNSW and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The study focuses on laws and law enforcement practices affecting adults engaged in sex work. The study does not aim to describe laws relating to minors who are sexually exploited through involvement in selling sex. The study considers the relevance of antitrafficking laws insofar as such laws are inappropriately applied against adults voluntarily engaged in sex work. However, it does not describe anti-trafficking laws in detail. 5 This report summarizes laws and law enforcement practices that affect the human rights of sex workers and which impact on the effectiveness of HIV responses, including: criminal offences that specifically apply to adult sex work and the sex industry; public order, vagrancy and other general offences that are selectively enforced against sex workers; anti-trafficking laws that overreach their proper purposes and are enforced against consenting adult sex workers, rather than traffickers. In addition, the report identifies examples of civil and administrative laws and regulations that affect HIV responses among sex workers, such as brothel and entertainment establishment registration/licensing laws, tenancy laws, censorship laws and laws affecting rights of citizenship, such as birth registration and access to identification cards. The report also summarizes protective and enabling laws and practices that are supportive of HIV responses, including: community mobilization of sex workers, sex worker unions and self-regulatory initiatives; labour laws regulating the sex industry as an occupation; anti-discrimination laws; and 4 Participants included representatives of Jagriti Mahila Maha Sangh (Nepal), Blue Diamond Society (Nepal), Shishuder Jonno Amra (Bangladesh), Tree Foundation Bangladesh, WNU Sex Worker Legal Centre (Cambodia), Empower (Thailand), China Sex Worker Organizations Network Forum, Survival Advocacy Network (Fiji), Durbar Mahila Samanwya Committee (India), Indonesia Social Change Organisation (OPSI), Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN), LAC/PT/MAC Legal Clinic (Malaysia) and Population Services International (Myanmar). Scarlet Alliance (Australia) provided comments in relation to chapters on Australia and the Pacific. 5 Laws relating to trafficking are detailed in other studies e.g., Thomas S. (2011) Legal and Policy Review: Responses to Human Trafficking in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, New Delhi: UNODC ROSA. 10
legal recognition of the human rights of sex workers, under constitutional provisions or other human rights legislation. Introduction Laws and law enforcement practices relating to narcotic drugs affect sex workers who are also drug users. Laws and law enforcement practices relating to homosexuality and transgender people also affect male and transgender sex workers. 6 While this study recognizes these overlaps, analysis of laws and practices relating to drug use, men who have sex with men, and transgender people were not the central concern of this study. The report recognizes that legal environments comprise not only written laws, but also law enforcement practices of police, public security and military personnel, legal institutions (including the judiciary and the formal, religious and informal customary courts), systems for documenting and addressing human rights violations, and delivery of legal aid and community legal education. Legal environments set the overall context for HIV responses of government and civil society and influence the social climate in which prevention, treatment, care and support programmes operate. Legal environments that are coercive and punitive can contribute significantly to stigma. Legal environments that are protective and empowering can help combat stigma and underpin health promotion efforts that rely on the voluntary cooperation of populations in changing behaviours and accessing prevention, testing, treatment and care services. Limitations The methodology for this study has been limited in the following ways: It relies largely on data available through a literature review. Legal environments of many sex worker communities have not been researched and available research findings are often dated. Existing research also tends to focus on criminal laws rather than other aspects of the legal environment that are less well documented. The methodology relied on English language sources. The timeframe for data collection was short (June –December 2011). This placed constraints on the extent of consultations that were feasible to validate the findings. The large number of countries covered (48) and limited timeframe meant that not all countries could be addressed in detail. Very limited data was obtained from the literature review for Afghanistan, Brunei, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the smaller Pacific island states. The information for these countries is provided only under each region’s summary table. This study is intended to provide a foundation for supporting country efforts to advocate for reform to laws, policies and practices. This study is a first step. The mapping of issues, laws and practices will be an on-going process that will require further detailed work to thoroughly explore country-specific issues, engage stakeholders in a process of change and monitor changes in legal environments as they occur over time. 6 See: Godwin J. (2010), Legal environments, human rights and HIV responses among men who have sex with men and transgender people in Asia and the Pacific: an agenda for action, Bangkok: UNDP. 11
Page 1 and 2: SEX WORK AND THE LAW IN ASIA AND TH
Page 3 and 4: SEX WORK AND THE LAW IN ASIA AND TH
Page 5: Table of contents 7. PACIFIC Overvi
Page 8 and 9: ACRONYMS AND KEY TERMS Term Definit
Page 10 and 11: PLHIV People Living with HIV PLRI P
Page 12 and 13: Legal terms Law: Laws are rules pre
Page 14 and 15: xii AN INDIAN HEALTH WORKER EXPLAIN
Page 16 and 17: India, Nepal and the Philippines).
Page 18 and 19: Laws, policies and practices that a
Page 20 and 21: opened a bar in Chiang Mai that pro
Page 22 and 23: 8 SUSPECTED SEX WORKERS HIDE THEIR
Page 26 and 27: 1.2 International legal and policy
Page 28 and 29: iii. the report of the Independent
Page 30 and 31: into commercial sex and by whom, an
Page 32 and 33: UN Trafficking Convention The UN Co
Page 34 and 35: 20 SEX WORKERS WAIT FOR CLIENTS ON
Page 36 and 37: to police for fear of further abuse
Page 38 and 39: social security laws that do not re
Page 40 and 41: example. However, as these programm
Page 42 and 43: Jagriti Mahila Maha Sangh (Federati
Page 44 and 45: organize within their communities a
Page 46 and 47: 32 KUAN HSIU-CHIN, ONE OF TAIWAN’
Page 48 and 49: Where governments have recognized t
Page 50 and 51: 1.2 Laws that criminalize sex work
Page 52 and 53: 4.2 Donors should support NGOs and
Page 54 and 55: 40 NEARLY 2,000 SEX WORKERS SHOUT S
Page 56 and 57: e.g., devadasis, jogins, bhavins. T
Page 58 and 59: TABLE 1: LEGALITY OF ADULT SEX WORK
Page 60 and 61: The Local Government (Zila Parishad
Page 62 and 63: Despite the Court’s ruling, a stu
Page 64 and 65: order to ensure smooth operation of
Page 66 and 67: 4.3 Bhutan Illegal SEX WORK IN PRIV
Page 68 and 69: State laws relating to public order
Page 70 and 71: The Act provides institutional reha
Page 72 and 73: Convention for Suppression of Traff
Page 74 and 75:
4.4.2 Law enforcement practices Pol
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A study of 673 female sex workers i
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Kotiswaran has conducted a detailed
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involving power analysis, implement
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HIV/AIDS coordination committees we
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…The community mobilization effor
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The DMSC approach has reduced the n
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4.5 Maldives Illegal SEX WORK IN PR
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4.6.1 Laws The Trafficking and Tran
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false arrest for carrying condoms,
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2. The government, donors and UN ag
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Section 371A and Section 371B of th
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Sex workers are routinely harassed
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fine. 261 An ‘incorrigible rogue
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The UN Committee on the Elimination
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90 Caption for photo here SEX WORKE
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TABLE 2: LEGALITY OF ADULT SEX WORK
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or accommodates a woman for sex wor
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there are many illegal practices pe
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of police misconduct reported by se
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All pilot projects recognized that
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5.3 Hong Kong Special Administrativ
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5.4.1 Laws Sex work in private is l
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In 2011, the Legislature amended th
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y a television crew, which then bro
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others, inducing a person to be a s
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STI examinations show a rapid decre
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A SEX WORKER STANDS IN A DOORWAY AT
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deportation, with limited access to
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6.2 Cambodia 371 Legal SEX WORK IN
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Prior to 2008, research documented
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5. Targeting of sex workers reduced
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involved in drug use, special inter
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educate about the situation of sex
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such as streets and parks are a bar
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of Rp 5000 before leaving.…Securi
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100% CUP 100% CUP approaches have b
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young, poorly educated Khmou women
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6.4.3 Efforts to improve the legal
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There are periodic police crackdown
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Several workers in all groups raise
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The government issued an Administra
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Sex workers in many countries have
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of HIV prevention efforts. In the a
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There are also protective laws such
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Other examples of local ordinances
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Sex workers working independently a
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standard operating procedures of la
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If sex work is conducted in a ‘pr
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Suppression of Human Trafficking Ac
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According to the Empower Foundation
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and STD awareness, limited access t
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including sex workers, on a volunta
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2010. 584 A raid in 2011 by police
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The National Programme aims to free
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6.11.3 Efforts to improve the legal
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TRANSGENDER SEX WORKER, SHEENA, HAS
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antibodies. Certification may engen
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continued Sub-region / country / te
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continued Sub-region / country / te
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7.3 Kiribati Legal SEX WORK IN PRIV
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The HIV/AIDS Decree 2011 provides t
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in building community and liaise wi
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provide a place to work or to prote
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of discrimination and police brutal
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Another man described a raid on the
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and key populations, including sex
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The purpose of this Act is to decri
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Laws State / Territory Legislation
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programmes. 696 New South Wales dec
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testing increased, with the regular
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ANNEX I: SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Abel G
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National Network of Sex Workers and
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Violence from police (e.g., Republi
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Theme: Economic Rights/Right to Liv
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ANNEX III: LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS PA
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