SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

Police instructions in several states of India direct police not to harass or arrest sex
workers.
The HIV/AIDS Curriculum for Senior Level Police in Nepal addresses the need to prevent
police abuses against sex workers. 46
Legislation
Findings and conclusions
Legislation in Fiji and Papua New Guinea make it unlawful to deny a person access,
without reasonable excuse, to condoms or other means of protection from HIV.
Legislation in Viet Nam requires the government to implement harm reduction
interventions including condom programmes with sex workers, and protects peer
educators from prosecution.
Legislation in Lao PDR provides:
an obligation to improve advocacy and HIV education for sex workers;
a right to voluntary counselling and testing for HIV, and for test results to be kept
confidential;
that citizens, aliens, foreigners and people with no nationality have rights to
information on HIV prevention;
that the health sector should report on HIV trends among sex workers to inform
planning.
National HIV laws in Cambodia, Fiji, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines
offer some protections in areas such as prohibition of compulsory testing, and rights
to confidentiality and to protection from discrimination for those who are HIVpositive.
Draft laws in India and Pakistan prohibit police from confiscating condoms from sex
workers or obstructing their access to HIV services. (However, although the respective
national HIV/AIDS authorities support these bills, governments are yet to enact the
legislation).
Sex work and activities associated with sex work have been decriminalized in New
South Wales (Australia) and New Zealand, and legally enforceable workplace health
and safety standards have been developed for sex workers.
Legislation in New Zealand and some jurisdictions in Australia provide sex workers
with legal protections from discrimination and unfair work practices.
Initiatives of sex workers and their organizations to improve the legal
environment
Sex worker organizations in India have mobilized to address human rights violations,
advocate for law reform and engage with the police to improve law enforcement
practices (e.g., VAMP, DMSC, SWFK, KSWU, Ashodaya Samithi). Some have established
self-regulatory boards.
46 Sex workers consulted in 2011 noted that despite the existence of the Curriculum, sex workers are still
harassed by the police and there is a need to reach junior police as well as senior police.
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