Sex Workers and HIV Prevention in Fiji - after the Fiji Crimes Decree ...

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espect to sex worker rights to HIV prevention servicesand resources, that the new HIV Decree will, in theory,override all other law. However, it is practice ratherthan theory which has the impact on peoples’ lives – asevidenced by the data gathered for this report.Indeed, under close scrutiny, many of the ‘Prostitutionoffences’ detailed in the Crimes Decree may notconstitute massive changes to the law in Fiji as itconcerns sex work. However, the new criminalisation ofclients, the reception and interpretation of the provisionsof the Decree by NGO service providers and by sexworker organisations, and the response by some lawenforcers in the military who have taken the laws aslicense to detain, torture, abuse and force the labourof people who they know to be sex workers, have mostcertainly had a dramatic impact, and a totally deleteriouseffect on HIV prevention.A law that is variously or controversially interpreted maybe proven through one or two good test cases, but thisdoesn’t happen when cases never come to court. In sucha situation, the powers endowed by the law are, in effect,as wide as agents of law enforcement choose to interpretthem to be. As few charges have been laid against sexworkers since February 2010 and even fewer have beenthrough the court system, there has been little opportunityto test or prove the new laws regarding sex work. Sexworker fears about the ramifications of the Decree arebased on wider community, media, NGO and militaryunderstandings and interpretations of the new laws, aswell as the sex workers’ own experiences.‘The criminal law is not a neutral or just form of HIVprevention. We believe that criminal law is sociallyorganized and that it operates as a mandated courseof action for politicians, the police, the judiciary,the courts, as well as associated media and publicopinion.’ (Worth, Patton, McGehee, 2005 p.15 ) 40Sex WoRKeRS and HIV PreveNTIon in Fiji - After The Fiji Crimes Decree 2009Sex workers’ loss of human rights and subjection tosexual and physical abuse is not a phenomenon limitedto Fiji; indeed it has been documented across Asia andthe Pacific in association with criminalisation. 2 However,as the data from this research shows, it is not simplythe impact of the written law which is of concern, butthat of the wider legal environment: the law enforcementpractices of some military personnel; the lack ofdocumentation and address of human rights violations;problems with access to legal aid, and problematic(extra-judicial and community) interpretations andunderstandings of the law.Effective HIV prevention efforts and the human rights ofsex workers are inextricably intertwined. While revisionof the law is a necessary start, the law in isolation willnot be sufficient to protect this or any other vulnerablepopulation. Real protection requires a change in thehearts and minds of those who have power; bothpolitical power and power in the day-to-day operationof society – not just law-makers and the courts, but alsolaw enforcers, collectively and individually, as well as allothers whose decisions affect so profoundly the rights ofsex workers.26
References†. Harcourt C, Egger S & Donovan B. Sex work and the law.Sexual Health 2005; 2(3):121–128.1. Turning the Tide: An open strategy for a response to AIDS inthe Pacific, Report of the Commission on AIDS in the Pacific.Suva, Fiji: UNAIDS Pacific Region, 2009; 88.2. Global Commission on HIV and the Law. Report of the AsiaPacific Regional Dialogue of the Global Commission on HIVand the Law. Bangkok, 17 February: UNDP, 2011.3. Building Partnerships on HIV and sex work. Report andrecommendations from the first Asia and the Pacific RegionalConsultation on HIV and Sex Work, 2011.4. Fiji Law Reform Commission. Reform of the penal code andcriminal procedure code: The sexual offences report. Suva:FLRC,1999;79.5. Shameem N. A Comparison of the Fiji Penal Code, the FijiCrimes Decree in relation to offences of prostitution/sexwork. Unpublished paper. 7 September, 2011.6. Phoenix J & Oerton S. Illicit and Illegal: Sex, Regulation andSocial Control. Cullompton: Willan Publishing, 2005.7. Lowman J. Violence and the Outlaw Status of (Street)Prostitution in Canada. Violence Against Women, 2000;6(9):987–1011.8. Gould, A. The Criminalisation of Buying Sex: the Politics ofProstitution in Sweden. Jnl Soc. Pol 2001; 30(3):437–456.9. Rekart M. Sex-work harm reduction. Lancet 2005; 366:2123–34.16. Cooper H, Moore L, Gruskin S & Krieger N. CharacterizingPerceived Police Violence: Implications for Public Health. AmJ Public Health, 2004; 94:1109–1118.17. Blankenship, K & Koester S. Criminal Law, Policing Policy,and HIV Risk in Female Street Sex Workers and InjectionDrug Users. J L Med & Ethics 2002; 30(4):548–559.18. Weitzer R. The Movement to Criminalize Sex Work in theUnited States, J Law & Soc 2010; 37(1): 61–84.19. Sanders T. Sex Work. A Risky Business, Cullompton: WillanPublishing, 2005.20. Gardner J. Criminalizing the act of sex work in South Africa.In The Prize and the Price: Shaping Sexualities in SouthAfrica. Edited by M van Zyl and M Steyn. Cape Town, SA:HSRC Press, 2009.21. Arnott J, Crago A-L. Rights not Rescue: A Report on Female,Male, and Trans Sex Workers’ Human Rights in Botswana,Namibia, and South Africa. In Open Society Institute OpenSociety Initiative for Southern Africa SHARP: Open SocietyInstitute, 2009.22. Abel G, Fitzgerald L & Brunton J. The impact ofdecriminalisation on the number of sex workers in NewZealand, J Soc Pol 2009; 38(2):515–531.23. Harcourt C, Egger S & Donovan B. Sex work and the law.Sexual Health 2005; 2(3):121–128.24. Cler-Cunningham L & Christensen C. Violence againstwomen in Vancouver’s street-level sex trade and the policeresponse. 2001. Retrieved from10. Goodyear M. Protection of sex workers: Decriminalisationcould restore public health priorities and human rights. BMJ2007;334:52-3.11. Boynton P & Cusick L. Sex workers to pay the price. BMJ2006;332:190.12. Cusick L & Berney L. Prioritizing punitive responses overpublic health: commentary on the Home Office consultationdocument Paying the Price. Critical Social Policy,2005;25(4):596-606.13. Pyett P & Warr D. Vulnerability on the streets: female sexworkers and HIV risk. AIDS Care, 1997;9(5):539-547.14. Shannon K, Kerr T, Strathdee S, Shoveller J, Montaner J &Tyndall M. Prevalence and structural correlates of genderbased violence among a prospective cohort of female sexworkers. BMJ 2009; 339:29-39.15. Brooks-Gordon B. The price of sex: Prostitution, policy andsociety. Cullompton: Willan Publishing, 2006.25. Plange, Nii-K. Report on prostitution in Fiji. Department ofSociology, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji, 1990.26. Ahlburg D & Jensen E. The Economics of the CommercialSex Industry. Confronting AIDS: Evidence from theDeveloping World. Edited by M Ainsworth, L Fransen & MOver. Brussels: European Commission, 1998.27. McMillan K & Worth H. Risky Business: Sex work and HIVprevention in Fiji. International HIV Research Group. Sydney:UNSW Press, 2010.28. Harrington C. ‘Marriage’ to Capital: The Fallback Positionsof Fiji’s Women Garment Workers. Development in Practice2004;14(4):495–507.29. Rokoduru A. ‘Your life is in your hands’: Women workers inFiji’s tax free zone – a rights approach. Asia Pacific Forumon Women, Law and Development (APFWLD): Chiang Mai,2008.Sex WoRKeRS and HIV PreveNTIon in Fiji - After The Fiji Crimes Decree 200927
Page 1 and 2: Sex Workers and HIVPrevention in Fi
Page 3 and 4: Table of CONTENTSINTRODUCTION......
Page 5 and 6: iNTRODUCTIONOn 1 February 2010, the
Page 7 and 8: The Risky Business: Sex Work and HI
Page 9 and 10: Media representation of sex workund
Page 11 and 12: Arrest and prosecution dataIntervie
Page 13 and 14: ResultsThe resultant sex worker int
Page 15 and 16: and tell them to go home, the sex w
Page 17 and 18: Monday morning we were taken for th
Page 19 and 20: Before, when there was no Crime Dec
Page 21 and 22: From the sex workers’ point of vi
Page 23 and 24: Sex worker communityThe targeting a
Page 25: iskier for them. This may make the
Page 32: International HIV Research GroupSam

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